Shore Leave: MEA One Shots
by Blablover5
Summary: A bunch of different Mass Effect: Andromeda one shots. I wanted to add a few extra scenes for the various romances and some of the companions hanging around having fun. The first is a general story of all the companions getting together on Voeld for a surprise. After that, it moves into romance scenes after the end of the main story. So spoilers beware.
1. Shore Leave

_Liam has a surprise for the crew of the Tempest as they all take a surprising break after finishing up work on the icy planet Voeld. Just a bit of fluff and fun to have all the characters working off each other while they pall around in an alien hot tub. Spoilers only up to finishing the main mission on Voeld, otherwise nothing past that point in game._

* * *

"I don't know about this."

After weeks of fighting off Kett, Roekaar, Remnant tech, and whatever else in the galaxy was trying to kill her, it was the steaming water that had Ryder on edge.

"What's the matter, Pathfinder? Worried we'll all laugh at your bathing suit?" Liam chuckled, already submerged partially into this wild idea of his. He was shirtless, which seemed to be a pattern for the man (not that she intended to file a formal complaint against him), and not a half-dead, human popsicle despite all evidence to the contrary.

On the frozen world of Voeld, this should be impossible. Even with the heaters stacked a dozen together cranked up on high, they should all be transforming into fillet of mystery meat steaks found at the back of the freezer. "SAM?" Ryder called out, tenderly reaching her sandaled toe towards what looked like steam rising off the surface, "What temperature is the water?"

"It is 32˚ Centigrade, Pathfinder."

"See," Liam waved his hands through the water, "perfect temperature, perfect water, perfect view." He twisted his head around to gaze at the snowy hills, winds battering the never ending cold back and forth. It wasn't as bad as it had been when they first arrived courtesy of their team and the Remnant vaults, but Voeld wasn't a world you wanted to run around naked on.

"Move yer backsides!" a voice screamed from the door hatch of the Tempest as a blue blur dashed from the freezing cold into the protected bubble. Peebee tucked her knees up high to her chest and then leapt straight on into the water. When she struck, giggling like mad, a great wave splattered against Ryder's robe, warmer than anything she could ever get out of a shower on the ship or the Nexus.

"Whoa!" Liam laughed, "perfect cannonball!"

"Cannon what now?" Peebee asked, rising from the not-icy depths and shaking the water out of her ears. She tipped her head back, as if attempting to free any water that might have gotten trapped between her head tentacles.

"What you did, we call it a cannonball," Liam explained needlessly.

"Asari refer to it as a tea'na," Cora stepped out to join them. "It's a reference to the biotic term for a shockwave." Clutched in her arms was a folded up chair, which she managed to set up with a singe flick of her wrist and placed into the snow.

"Come on, aren't you going to join in on this lovely manmade hot spring?" Liam all but begged her. He'd been planning this for days, scrounging in secret with his contacts on both Aya and Kadara. The fact only Peebee, who'd probably ride a remnant Architect if someone put the idea in her head, took him up on it was clearly chaffing him.

"Nope." Smiling wide, Cora tugged off her robe to reveal what almost looked like a second skin grafted over top of hers, it was so tight. Bright blue with fashionable dots of pink and purple, it reached from her neck down to her thighs. What really made the suit stand out were the diagonal cuts across the hips, the stomach, and an x over the chest. It was hard for Ryder to say if in general the outfit covered or exposed more skin.

Peebee turned away from the horizon to snicker, "Shock of shocks, it's an Asari water suit. I'm amazed you don't paint your skin blue and insist we all call you Cornezhia, or something."

"That is..." Cora stopped in laying back on the deck chair to jerk a finger at Peebee. "I would never do something so disrespectful to the Asari."

"Right, because it might be fun and horror of horrors you'd never want to do that. Could get a terrible rash from enjoying yourself," Peebee laughed before submerging back into the water.

Their doctor stepped down out of the ship, a towel tossed over her shoulder, but she was dressed in her usual scrubs. "I see Peebee is up to her usual tricks. Liam, no signs of hypothermia, yet?"

"Nope, we're all good here, Doc. Just trying to get our illustrious Pathfinder to strip off that robe and leap in."

"It would be rude of me to partake before my wonderful crew's all had a chance. What about it, Doctor?" Ryder glanced over at Lexi who pulled out a data pad to inspect.

"I'm only here to make certain no one dies, Ryder."

"What happened to 'I'll take a break, I promise,'" she asked, honing in on the woman who couldn't let loose for two seconds.

Lexi sighed, "This is a break. I left my med-bay, did I not? Despite there being half of a Kett liver sitting on my dissection tray."

"Half?" Liam piped up. "What happened to the rest of it?"

"I ate it," Drack's grave voice chuckled as the old Krogan stomped out of the ship fully naked. Everyone groaned, their heads twisting up to the snow specked sky and beyond while doing their best to not stare at alien bone plates that didn't cover enough.

Either unaware of any offense, or enjoying it, Drack slid into the hot water. "Shiiit," he sighed in ecstasy, "this is what I needed."

"Work some of the kinks out of the old bones? Pretty smart to whip this up, eh?" Liam asked, all but elbowing Drack for the Krogan to compliment his idea.

"Careful kid, you're liable to throw your shoulder out patting yourself on the back like that. Humans have the weakest shoulders. Arms. Legs. Necks. Pretty much everything, really."

"Do not remain in there too long Drack or your blood pressure may spike. Without the extra hearts to balance the load..."

"Yeah yeah," Drack cut off Lexi's concern, the old Krogan content to soak away his cramps and aches.

Before Ryder could summon up the nerve to drop her robe and slide in, a Turian and Angaran came tramping down the incline. Vetra eyed up the display of so much male flesh bracing against the elements and sighed, "You're gonna cook your own brains in that, Kosta. Assuming you haven't already."

"Come on, surely Turians have to take a nice hot dip every once in awhile." Liam waggled his eyebrows, trying to do what damn near every human did when they meet a Turian - get them out of that armor. Ever since the First Contact Wars it became a constant hushed question of just what they looked like under there.

But Vetra wasn't about to be fooled. Crossing her arms, she laughed, "Swimming with Drack you're likely to come away suffering from parasites undocumented in either galaxy. I'll stick with the fresh and clean air, thanks."

"Do something nice for your fellow crewmates and what do you get for the effort?" Liam grumbled, before his eyes skirted up to the alienist among them. "What about you, Jaal? Don't tell me Angarans hate water."

"Far from it. We will often engage in bathing rituals together." Their Angaran began to strip and somehow it was nowhere near as unnerving as catching a peek at Drack's quad. He made certain to lay his clothes out carefully, the blue rofjinn getting top honors, before easing down into the water beside their resident Krogan.

After a few breaths, those hauntingly marble-like eyes shut tight in ecstasy. A rumbling that could be both a sigh of contentment or deep intestinal pains broke from their Angaran before Jaal glanced over at her, "What of you, Ryder?"

"Oh for all the, fine! Fine. I think you're all crazy, but..." She untied the knot on her robe and let it drop into the snow.

The Andromeda Initiative provided wear for all potential terrain - snow, desert, rain, forestry - but somehow forgot to include anything in the pack should they wind up resting comfortably upon a beach. Or in this case a snowbank someone used a shuttle engine to burn down into a hot spring. That left Ryder with only one option, the complimentary string bikini courtesy of AI marketing. They'd left a stack of the damn things along with some other bits and bobbleheads in crates that made it all the way out to Andromeda because no one wanted to house all that mess back at the Milky Way.

White with the cerulean blue streaking up the sides of her breasts and hips, a giant AI was embroidered right over her left nipple. It was tiny, it was far too revealing, and she had to fight back an urge to rush back into the ship before she blushed her way through the snow. You're the Pathfinder. You can control Remanent tech and save these worlds. Wearing a little bikini is nothing next to walking into a Kett base and yanking the Moshae out from under them.

A whistle caught her attention, and she stared into the pond to find Peebee with her fingers in her mouth and a great grin on her cheeks. That caused a blush to burn on Ryder's in response, but she spotted the same slightly better controlled curious burn in her crew's eyes. All of them save Drack, he was busy trying to dig a bunion off the side of a foot plate.

Doing her best to let confidence take control, Ryder kicked off her sandals and walked towards the water's edge. She dipped a toe into this embracing, enticing heat and her body - still in the never-ending winter chill - froze in response. Aware that the AI on her chest was now more pointed than before, and that wasn't something she wanted to proudly display before the crew, she hopped fully into the pond. There was no touchable bottom, Ryder submerging fully as she succumb to the heat. The water was perfect, circling her weary body like a cashmere blanket, or a lover's cuddling arms by a roaring fire.

Paddling to break the surface, Ryder slicked the water off her face and out of her hair and found herself in the middle of the pond. "All right, Kosta, you win this one."

"Ha! See, I knew it'd be what everyone needs. Who doesn't want to tip back and relax in their own hot tub surrounded by friends?"

"Has anyone seen Suvi?" Lexi piped up unexpectedly, finally glancing away from her work for a moment.

"I think she said something about snow mushrooms," Cora said, her hands placed over her eyes as if she was trying to shield them from the sun.

"Goddess," Lexi cursed, "I'd best prep an antitoxin just in case." Ryder wondered if she shouldn't head out to try and find her wayward officer who was often licking things she shouldn't. But the water was far too inviting, and the snow far too cold. Damn, she hadn't considered how she was going to get out of here.

"Do humans often congregate together in water?" Jaal asked.

"We've got whole parks devoted to it," Liam said. "Kids sliding down these huge metal tubes on nothing but their stomachs. There was this one by me growing up that claimed to have an anti-grav water slide. Thing had four loops to it and could hit two G's if you knew what you were doing."

Cora peered up from her Asari sunbathing, "Anti-gravity? How could they keep the water from beading up and flying away?"

"Wasn't really anti-grav, just part of the marketing. Don't miss all that rot much out here. Buy this, you need that, can't have a real life unless you fill it with junk. You know they were starting to stick ads onto the Omni-tools. Ugh."

"Give it time," Ryder chuckled. "We'll have billboards for 'Andromeda Cereal' and 'Toy Adhi' scattered across this quadrant in no time."

"Bring the bad along with the good, eh?"

"It's how you know you've made it, I guess. A real civilization," she sighed, drifting deeper into the water. It was impossible for her to guess how far down he drilled to make this. The bottom was shadowed in navy swirls below her, as impenetrable as Helius had been. Ryder let her chin sink nearer the waterline as her mind drifted back to the monumental task ahead of her. Find golden worlds for everyone, get food growing, discover how to neutralize the Kett, oh - and when you have the time - form a proper government instead of letting Tann run everything his way. No pressure. Should be easy as pie. It's a wonder she didn't already have it finished, in fact.

"Growing up on the Citadel, Scott and I would always egg each other on to jump into that giant lake on the Presidium. He'd get cold feet, I'd get a death grip to the railing, or C-sec would come around the corner and we'd rush back home laughing."

"Did you ever do it?" Vetra asked.

"Right before I was supposed to ship out to my first Prothean dig site, Scott took my hand, shook it, and," Ryder smiled wickedly, "I hurled him off the bridge right into the lake."

The Turian laugh was broken up by a, "No way."

"Yup, they had to send for a Hanar to fish him out. Turns out the sides are too slick for anyone to climb up, something about how it makes cleaning easier." Her brother was so mad, shaking both from the cold and fury at having half of C-sec standing around watching him flounder about. But when she hugged him even while he was sopping wet, Scott let it go, whispering that he'd get her back in time. And now he was trapped on the Hyperion in a coma, while she was saddled with saving the galaxy. You win this round, little brother.

"Aya has some beautiful waterfalls," Liam said. He braved the snow circling their oasis by stretching both his arms against the lip of the pond. Turning his head, he honed in on Jaal who glanced up.

"Indeed. We cling to what little beauty the kett have yet to steal from us."

"Do they hold any cultural significance for your people, Jaal?" Ryder twisted around to face him.

He glanced up in thought, and she was struck again by his people's eyes. It was strange to consider, but they sometimes reminded her of earth, of gazing down at their blue marble from space. To find a scrap of home in an alien in an entirely other galaxy sounded far fetched beyond belief and yet...

"No," Jaal said, then a small smile took hold, "though we will often invite someone to view the falls by night when we wish to get them into bed."

"Ah..." Ryder tipped her head back to the sky, doing her best to not laugh at something that seemed to be universal.

She stopped laughing when Jaal, in his deathly serious tone asked point blank, "What of you, Ryder?" Her face snapped down towards the water, a blush taking hold as she was suddenly aware of every single eye on her makeshift crew staring daggers at her.

"What, what of me?"

"Do your people do the same?"

"Uh," she twisted around, catching a snicker from Liam. Peebee was covering her mouth with both hands to try and make the laugh more obvious, which caused the asari to begin to sink. "Some of them," Ryder finished with.

Jaal nodded, finding it interesting, before asking with that almost impish smile, "Do you?"

"Me? Um, that's not really something I..." Ryder twisted around hoping for backup.

"Well, Pathfinder?" Vetra pipped up. "Found any good _paths_ lately?"

"It has been over 600 years," Liam chuckled. "One hell of a long cold streak. That's like some kind of celibate record, right?"

Peebee rose from the surface to shout, "What? Our galaxy crossing, kett fighting, remnant talking hero's getting lonely in that palatial suite of hers?"

"That bed alone could sleep three or four," Cora tacked on.

"Ha," Drack grunted, "don't need a bed. Just a corner, and maybe a rock to get her to slide up onto."

Lexi, even the doctor who was supposed to look out for their well being, turned on her. "It has been shown that companionship and physical connections will often help a person to destress."

Ryder felt the blush cranking up higher against her cheeks. Mutineers, that's what they all were. Traitors to the core. "New rule," she grumbled, her chin bobbing against the surface to mask the red burn, "if you talk about the pathfinder's love life or lack there of in any way, you will be hurled off the ship. Possibly into a sun."

"Ah..."

"I mean it, Kosta," she whipped a finger at him and the man shut up instantly. But her threat couldn't wipe the cheeky grin off his face, off any of their faces. Those bastards knew, or had a good suspicion, but would rather toy with her - the way friends did. They were her bastards. Her crew.

Ryder began to ease up out of her shame dive into the water, when she felt something slide across her leg. About to shake it off as a current, it was Peebee who all but leaped out and shouted, "What the shit! Something's down there! I felt it touch me."

"Me too," Ryder added, the pair sharing a look, when sure as shit a hand landed upon her calf. Instinctively, Ryder moved to kick it, but the creature had enough presence to get out of the way. "Fuck, it's still there."

"It's surfacing!" Peebee shouted, both women swimming towards the side, staring deep into the murky blue water as a darker shadow drew closer.

"Ha," Drack laughed once and aimed a pistol at whatever alien creature could live in the frozen lakes of Voeld. Every swimmer held their breath waiting and watching the shadow drift higher and higher until a pair of great black eyes crested out of the water and blinked rapidly.

"Ah, Ryder," the Salarian twisted his head around, "and the rest, I see you finally made it out to the pool."

"Kallo," Ryder sighed, then waved her hand at Drack to put the weapon away. "How long have you been down there?"

"Not very, a half hour I believe. There are some fascinating rock formations at the bottom. The fissures almost look like circuit boards. No doubt a matter of nature accidentally mimicking science, but anything is possible on this vault controlled world. I was taking a few pictures for Suvi. Did I offend anyone?"

"Nah kid, we got it all under control," Drack laughed, tipping his head back to gaze at the sky.

"An entire half hour under the water?" Cora asked.

Vetra sighed, "The perks of being an amphibian. Kosta, why didn't you warn anyone?"

"I was about to, until the Krogan drew a weapon. Tend to shut my mouth when that happens."

"Hey," Ryder twisted over at Drack; their very naked Krogan, "where did you get that pistol from anyway?"

He snorted and slowly rolled a single reptilian eye at her, "Do you really want the answer to that?"

"No, good point, I'd rather sleep at night."

"All alone," Liam sang song.

"In that giant bed," Cora added in.

"With nothing but the stars for company," Peebee joined in the laugh, before pausing and saying quickly, "Actually, that sounds great. Just my kind of speed, assuming you've got enough fuel to get to the next star system."

Ryder waved her finger at them, "I can get a new crew, you know. Ask Tann, or Kandros to slip in their ringers. Get a ship of nothing but Turians. They won't gossip about their commanding officer's personal life."

At that Vetra snorted, "You don't know Turians very well, Ryder."

"You are kinda a shit example there, Nyx," Drack said to her and she sighed.

"Good point, old man."

"You know," Liam had that about to start something tone in his voice. Instinctively Ryder braced herself for whatever was coming. Sometimes it was a great surprise like a hot tub, others she found herself fighting in zero-grav against space pirates. "On Earth, there were these people who'd soak in hot tubs like these in the middle of frozen winter wonderlands, while skiing and the like, then leap out to roll around into the snow."

"That seems...dangerous," Jaal said.

"A good way to shatter your quad," Drack tacked on, sadly reminding all of them of the look they got at his.

Ryder shuddered, staring around at the snow they'd been fighting in what felt both hours and weeks ago. "You'd have to be completely out of your mind to even think of...what?"

It was Liam's sparkling eyes falling upon her that caused her to freeze. "We've already seen you fall out of shuttles, Pathfinder."

"Activate Remnant tech," Peebee took up the mantle.

"Land a flaming ship on an alien world without starting a war," Jaal said.

"Actually, it was me who landed the ship," Kallo interrupted, "though I was happy to have nothing to do with not starting a war."

"Took down those Kett bastards with just your omni-tool, a single grenade, and your shields fully blown," Drack said, slugging her in the shoulder.

"Which Kett bastards?" Ryder struggled to remember that fight.

"Does it matter? They're all bastards," the Krogan laughed.

"Ryder, Ryder, Ryder," Liam began to chant her name, his fists pumping up and down above the water.

"No," she said right to his face. "No, I'm not..."

"Ryder, Ryder, Ryder," Drack took over, the old man smiling way too much for this.

"If you're so excited about it, you do it," she shot at him, but the Krogan just kept chanting her name.

Jaal was next, his tongue rolling the R's like gravel caught in the Nomad's wheels, "Ryder, Ryder, Ryder." Soon Cora, and even Vetra were doing it.

"If she's doesn't, I am," Peebee said, before joining in with the chanting.

Gritting her teeth, Ryder stared out at the pristine white snow. She only remembered playing in it as a kid a few times before they moved, when she and Scott were at most four or five. Then they were all bundled off to the Citadel, where all weather was temperature controlled. What would it hurt to give it a go?

"I would advise against it, Pathfinder," Lexi spoke up, as if reading the grit in her eyes, "The massive temperature change could cause untold damage, certainly hypothermia is a risk."

"Are you gonna let some Doctor push you around?" Peebee jostled her.

"I am not pushing," Lexi sighed, rolling her eyes back to the pad. "If you suffer from shock, you know where the med-bay is. But do try to not die."

"Once was enough for me, thanks," Ryder laughed. She paddled towards the edge and gripped her fingers into the snow. The cold bit into her tender, pruned flesh. With no armor on, the true power of Voeld battered against the weak human body that wasn't prepared for this. But they were asking people to survive here, to make it a home.

She wouldn't be a Pathfinder, their Pathfinder, if she didn't try it first. Grabbing onto the shore with both hands, Ryder hefted her body straight out of the hot water. It rained down off her skin, exposing it instantly to the cold, but she was already up into the snow. Running, she got one foot, then another down, when SAM chirped up.

"Pathfinder, you are likely to experience great pain if you let your skin touch the surface of the planet."

Crossed a galaxy, left everything behind, became the only hope they had to make it out here. Even before this, she was often leaping from cliffs to get to the dig sites before anyone else. Ryders were not the kind to sit on their hands and wait for the way to be safe. If they didn't find a path, they forged it themselves.

"Noted," she called out loud, then leapt stomach first into the frozen snow. It was so cold it burned, melting in an instant to ice at her hot flesh as she rolled through it like those old skiers would.

"Pathfinder," SAM chirped again in her head, its voice sounding more concerned, "I am reading..."

She hobbled up to her feet and dashed back towards the promise of heat. Locking her arms in over her head, Ryder dived straight into the hot pond as if she was entering a pool, or finally leaping from the bridge into the Presidium lake. The heat washed over her body, scattering any clinging snow or ice and swaddling her back into comfort. Even under the water, in her head she could hear SAM almost sigh, "Readings are returning to normal."

Gently, Ryder crested back to the surface, her hands cupping along her face to try and wipe away the water in her eyes. "Whew!" she laughed, "that was bracing." As she opened her eyes she watched as first Liam, then Vetra, Cora, and all the rest began to clap. A few whistled, shouting their congratulations.

The instigator laughed, "I never thought you'd do it."

"Don't bet against a Ryder," she said, sticking out her chin.

"The entire Helius cluster is learning that," Jaal spoke up. Ryder turned to him and tipped her head in a modest bow. It was nice to hear a compliment every now and again. Whether he understood it or not, Jaal smiled in response.

"My turn," Peebee shouted, already scrabbling out of the water and running towards the snow.

"Peebee, asari resistance to cold is even worse than humans. You should not..." Lexi began, when Peebee turned and shot her tongue out at her. "Why do I bother?"

Around the corner came Suvi, dressed in winter wear and supported by Gil. He shouted, "I was checking on some patchwork jobs on the hull and spotted her passed out in the snow."

"It's nothing. A minor rush of blood to the head. It's bound to happen to anyone," Suvi tried to laugh it off while Lexi took the patient off his arms. She tried to smile an apology at their doctor, but Lexi only sighed.

Gil paused at the edge and folded his arms, "Why wasn't I invited to your little hot tub party?"

"There's plenty of room still," Ryder waved towards a small patch of real estate between Kallo and Jaal. At that moment, Peebee's blue body streaked through the air, the splash great enough to strike at their engineer.

He was sent scattering back, scowling at the wet mess splattered against his jacket while Liam shouted, "That's an even better cannonball."

"Tea'an," Cora interrupted.

"An Asari kiss ass says what?" Peebee shouted quickly causing Cora to frown but not take the bait.

It was Jaal who turned to her to ask, "What does an Asari kiss ass say?"

"Hopefully whoever brought the booze to this party, cause unless Ryder or the crazy one freezes to death, this is getting pretty dull," Drack moaned.

"Nonsense," Kallo answered him, "there are in fact over five different shades of kelp that Liam defrosted below us."

"Are you going to write a poem about it, Salarian?"

"I might," Jaal spoke up, "if he does not mind."

Liam groaned, "I'm all for cross species sharing, but count me out of the kelp poetry night."

"Ditto," Vetra added.

As they all fell to arguing over who could write the best poetry about kelp or other seaweeds, Ryder glanced up at the stars. Night was a few more hours away, but she could imagine them out there. They crossed a million light years, six centuries left behind, to all wind up here together on this alien, hostile world shooting the shit. None of this was planned for. They couldn't have predicted the Scourge, the Kett, or any of the other obstacles tossed in their way. But as the people, her people, clashed and came back together stronger for it, Ryder couldn't stop smiling at one thought.

"What are you thinking, Pathfinder?" the Angaran, the man she'd never have met if she remained in the Milky Way asked.

Ryder turned from the stars to gaze at the humans, the turian, krogan, salarian, asari, all working as a team, all becoming greater than what they once were back in that other galaxy. "That we're going to pull this off. That we're going to finally have a home."

"Here here!" Liam jerked his hand up as if raising a toast.

It was Drack who groaned, "Ah, this shit's getting to corny for me. We need something fun to do."

"Well..." Peebee smirked, her eyes sparkling in mischief, "there is that giant Pathfinder bed no one's using."

"I am using it, thank you very much," Ryder tried to wave her away, but it was too late.

"What are you thinking?" Vetra turned to the asari, both of them falling into a secret communication.

Peebee smacked her hands together and rubbed them, "I've always wanted to jump around on a human bed."

"What?" Ryder blinked.

The asari cackled and as quickly as she leapt towards the snow, she flew out of the pond, running towards the hatch, "Last one there's a vorcha!"

"Oh, you are on!" Liam followed suit, Drack stumbling up to join him with a bit of assistance out of the water courtesy of their engineer.

"No...what are you doing?" Ryder flipped around, trying to make sense as her crew abandoned her.

"This is most exciting," Jaal emerged from the pond, barely bothered by the chill. "What is this vorcha? It sounds spicy."

"You are not jumping on my bed!"

Vetra shrugged, "Sorry, Ryder," and turned to abandon her, same as the rest of her traitorous crew. Even Kallo and Cora stumbled up to their feet, curious to watch an asari, a krogan, a human, and no doubt angaran all bounce around on her bed. It wasn't going to survive Drack climbing on it.

Sputtering in rage, Ryder slapped her hand on the water, "Anyone who jumps on my bed will be thrown in the brig for a month!"

"What's that?" Liam held a hand up to his ear. "Can't hear you over these strong Voeld winds."

"Two months, a year! And...your rations will be cut down to nothing but canned jellied seaweed!"

"That stuff ain't half bad," Drack muttered. "If you take it with some of that Kett liver."

Jaal leaned closer to Vetra to ask, "Does the Tempest have access to this brig?"

"Not really. She'd probably make us all sit in the bathroom or something."

"Oh, that is not much of a punishment then. Good day, Ryder!" he waved, all of them cheerfully stomping off to her room to ransack it.

Burning with anger, Ryder snarled, "SAM..."

"Yes, Pathfinder?"

"Get me Kandros on the Nexus and put in a requisition order for a new crew, one that'll actually listen to their damn Pathfinder."


	2. Liam

_This is a Liam/FemRyder story._

 _Ryder's asked Liam to join her for a surprise but it's more than either of them bargained for. Written at LadyGoat's behest._

 _Spoilers for the end of the main story, so reader beware. Wooo!_

* * *

"Pathfinder?"

Liam's voice echoed through the ferns, or whatever passed for ferns in the Andromeda galaxy. It sounded slightly concerned, and his curiosity more than piqued to see what she was up to.

Ryder tipped her head to the man still in uniform, "I think you can drop the Pathfinder now?"

"Ah," he smiled, that dazzling burst of teeth always bringing one to her lips. "Didn't realize we were off the clock, so to speak." Liam punched a few buttons on his Omni-tool, either setting it to silent or leaving a tracker in the off chance someone had to come rescue them. Probably smart.

"So..." he slid closer, the metaphorical uniform falling away as his taut arms slid around her waist, "what are we doing out on this unexplored part of Meridian?"

"That is what we call a surprise," she chuckled before grabbing onto the back of his head and guiding him to her for a kiss. The perfumed air of thousands of exotic, undiscovered flowers in bloom couldn't compare to the musky scent of the man melting from her touch. He tasted even better than the ripest berry, his tongue tangling with hers a moment. The urge to yank off his shirt and kiss every dip and crest on that toned body rose in the back of her mind, but Ryder shook it away. Not yet, at least.

Leaning back from the kiss, Liam blinked madly, "If this is your idea of surprises, I could really come to love having my socks blown off."

"Just your socks, huh?" Ryder snickered, and the man blushed. He actually blushed, a few ums and uhs escaping from his lips as he tried to walk back the words. Unable to handle the unexpected sincerity, Ryder caught him in another kiss. Those succulent lips puckered around hers, as if holding her mouth tight in a comforting hug.

Liam brushed his nose against hers before sighing, "If this was your plan along, it's not a bad one, but I think we could have managed indoors and without having to wade through a leech infested swamp to get here."

"The Jaardan made leeches?"

"Close enough," he hissed. They'd only technically been on Meridian for two weeks but out of every scouting team and errant Pathfinder sent to traverse the inside-out planet it was Kosta who kept stumbling upon new discoveries. This was usually on accident and while he was trying to show off, but it was coming to be impressive.

"I wish I'd have had you around for Prothean digs. You'd probably have fallen right into an old relic on accident that completely rocked the entire field off its axis," Ryder laughed to herself. "But no, that's not entirely why I brought you all the way out here."

Sliding away from his arms, she kept a grip to his buttery soft hands and tugged him deeper with her towards the weeds. Ryder had to shift a pile of blue-green ferns out of the way to reveal what she'd hidden.

"A...boat?" Liam blinked in surprise at the bright orange and yellow river raft Ryder had installed at this exact spot.

She nodded, then leapt straight into it, barely pausing as it bobbed in the low water while tugging up an oar. When no sounds followed, Ryder turned to find him standing on the shore in shock. "Well Kosta, are you coming or not?"

"Sure, sure, always up for a laugh, but..." He was more careful hopping over the inflated bumpers to land upon the hardened plastic of the bottom, "why a boat?"

"To do this," she dug the oar into the silt under the raft and shifted it out of the weeds. It took a few more digs through the sandy bottom until their ship was sea born, lazily drifting outward down the crystal blue river.

"Alright, I get it," Liam gazed up at the green mountains circling them, "this is pretty damn amazing." They'd been hard at work racing to dissect and categorize every plant species Meridian had to offer. Inspecting the dirt to see if it held enough nutrients to support crops. Analyzing the air to see if there'd be any negative repercussions of breathing in this generated atmosphere. Omni-tools buzzing with scans, numbers crunching back to terminals, the work never ending. In all of that, they kept forgetting to look around, to admire the forest instead of the trees.

Ryder twisted the boat around, adjusting onto her knees as she sat forward at the prow of the raft. "That isn't the amazing part," she chuckled, eyeballing up what was about to come.

"What are you...?" Liam stuttered when the raft rocked to the side. "Whoa!" he reached over to try and grab onto a handle, only for the raft to pitch to the left. "Holy shit, Ryder!"

"Hang on!" she called back. Tossing the oar back, Ryder gripped tight to the front set of handles and stared down at the churning rapids of the river before them. The raft hung almost suspended above the ten foot drop off. She could feel Liam's warm breath billowing against her neck as he stared down with her.

"This is... AHHH!"

Gravity took over, the raft pitching straight down off the minor fall. When it struck, Ryder's brain bounced around in her skull, water spraying across her lap and into her face, but all she could do was laugh. "You still back there?"

"Yeah, I think so," Liam laughed in response, a hand suckering off the grip to try and squeegee water out of his eyes.

"Good," she snatched up the extra oar and passed it to him, "'cause you're gonna need this!"

Before them rested the craziest set of rapids Ryder'd seen in 600 or so years, red rocks that pulsed in a hypnotic glow smashing apart the water and their boat if they weren't careful. She dipped her oar into the water, trying to orient the raft as the speed began to increase, driving them straight for the first rock.

"Starboard!" she shouted, paddling with all her strength to guide the raft around it.

"Shit," Liam twisted his oar around, smacking it into the water just as they skimmed past the first rock. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Probably," Ryder laughed back at him. "Straight on," she commanded, aiming the raft towards a path between two rock formations. Water splattered into her eyes; fresh clean water from their new home. It clung tight to her clothes, her hair, slicked up her grip on the oar, but all she could do was laugh. After all that work to find a place that was even habitable, and they had this paradise. It seemed to be a miracle.

"Guessing you've never river rafted before," Ryder shouted over her shoulder to him, her body rolling with the rapids as she shifted back to her knees. It gave her the better control than sitting ass down.

"No kidding, unless you count breaking a water main and sliding down the street on the back of a pre-fab wall plate," even with his body tensing behind hers, his voice laughed from the challenge and rush.

"HUSTL?" she asked before shouting, "Port!"

Both oars twisted the boat to the left, narrowly skirting past a rock. Liam gasped at the glittering red chunk that he could have scraped his hands past. "Are you sure this is safe?"

"Of course," Ryder laughed. "Right SAM?"

"I calculate a 93% survival rate, Pathfinder."

"Shit!" the boat bounced against a rock barely peeking out of the surface, smacking into the side of the rubbery raft but not breaking it.

"84% survival rate."

"Thanks SAM, you big killjoy," Ryder grumbled. Her body churned below her tight grip. It felt as if every muscle was straining to the breaking point, trying to slip and slide to both fight and flow with the rapids below. It was a great reason to be alive. The man behind her seemed to agree, his snorts of laughter echoing in her ears even as he had to keep shaking the spray of water out of his eyes. They were both soaked, slipping back and forth across the textured floor thanks to this alien water.

Liam slid closer, his chest pressing into her back as he shouted, "You know what's at the end of this?"

"Not a clue," Ryder smiled, "That's what makes it fun."

"I'm starting to wonder how the Milky Way survived three of you Ryders."

"Wait until Andromeda has to deal with two," she chuckled, switching the paddle to the other side. They edged around another rock and seemed to slip out of the drowned quarry. The rapids pushed the raft towards the middle of the river, the boat rocking back and forth but as the rocky terrain faded behind them there was no immediate danger present. Ryder yanked her paddle back in and laid it across her lap. "I think the worst is over," she shouted, gripping onto the handles with both hands.

An arm slid around her waist, Liam's hand pinning tight to her stomach as he placed his chin upon her shoulder. Peering past, he took in the breathtaking view. The river churned through the pressing mountains, trees surrounding them on both sides as thick as any forests back on Earth. "This is incredible," Liam breathed before turning his head towards her. Ryder matched him, pivoting to press her lips to his.

"Pathfinder..."

Groaning, Ryder tipped her head up, "What is it, SAM?"

"There is a problem."

"Aside from an AI cockblock, you mean?" Liam chuckled. Even with SAM getting in the way, he kept his chin perched upon her shoulder, his eyes writing sonatas at her.

"I believe I know what is at the end of the river you are on," SAM said.

"Okay...?" she kept shouting with her head tipped upward as if SAM was her personal god or something. Though, given how it could both kill and save her, maybe SAM was.

"Based upon the topographical satellite images taken of this area, the river your raft is traveling down upon ends in a waterfall."

Ryder blinked a moment, her lips quirking up, "A waterfall? A waterfall. How big of a waterfall, SAM?"

"I am uncertain. The data is not fully comprehensible, it could be twenty feet high or a hundred."

"Shit!" Ryder cursed, yanking up the oar she abandoned. Jamming it into the river, she strained against the rapids, but was having little to no effect. Behind her she could hear Liam splashing and cursing much the same. They were straining with their all, but two humans couldn't compete against gallons and gallons of water running towards its watery doom.

"SAM, give me options here," she shouted to thin air, successfully managing to slightly spin the boat around. "Damn it!"

"Calculating. Pathfinder, if you use your jump jets to..."

"Yeah, left those back on shore. Because I'm an idiot. Give me something else," she hollered, visions of very pointy rocks shattering her fragile body filling her brain. What a way for the human Pathfinder to go out.

"You do keep things interesting," Kosta laughed from behind her. "And hey, if this does go pear shaped at least Cora'll get a crack at being Pathfinder."

"Oh hell no, I did not go through all that to die here. I'm done dying. SAM?!" She could see it now, the watery edge of the falls. It was almost beautiful, as if the entire horizon fell away to nothing. The white and grey water churned in little whirlpools with the running rapids until it struck the edge and then smoothed out like a ribbon. A deadly ribbon that could kill them.

The AI beeped back in her head, "I suggest you duck."

"Well, you heard him," Ryder sighed, tugging the oar back inside. "Grab onto the handles and sit back like this," she fell onto her ass and leaned as far back as she could. In the tiny raft, Ryder's head all but landed in Liam's lap, a tempting thought if they weren't facing a possible innards dashed upon the rocks scenario.

Liam gritted his teeth, straining to hold tight as the rapids picked up. The boat straightened out while it drifted deeper towards its doom. "Ryder, for what it's worth, you're bonkers, but my kind of bonkers."

"You too...Oh shit, hang on!"

The prow of the raft hung suspended above the falls as if it could float by magic. An endless blue horizon wafted past them, giving the illusion they were flying through the sky. But when enough of their weight shifted forward, down it fell. Curses echoed from both of them as they clung deeper inside the raft bouncing back and forth like a rollercoaster from hell. Ryder's stomach lifted into her throat, that giddy feeling of a straight drop almost bringing a laugh to her. She'd have gladly reveled in it if she wasn't without the power to slow the descent.

Water droplets sang through the air, the spray from the drop creating a vibrant rainbow. It was beautiful; every color of the spectrum singing out through the world beyond the water veil. She wished she could take an image of the bright trees of Meridian framed by the sleeting crisp water and wash of reds, blues, greens, and yellows of the prism. Ryder's lips lifted into a smile at the visual, when the raft plunged into the lake below.

Water gushed up her nose, her eyes closing on their own to try and fight against the force blasting against her body as she clung white knuckled to the handles. Rapids thrummed beside her head, the falls plummeting down like a rifle shot only to disperse and flow calmly into the lake below the surface. Ryder tried to risk a glance at it, when the raft began to rise up to pierce their watery coffin lid.

Her lungs took in a deep breath, gasping for the air denied for probably at most a half a minute but felt like five. The boat twisted around in a circle with the current while Ryder tried to snort out what water gushed down her nose. After hacking a bit and wiping away her soaked hair, she turned to ask, "Still back there, Liam?"

"You are beyond a doubt the most audacious woman I've ever known," his voice sounded strained but very much alive.

Ryder chuckled and slid up higher to rest her head back upon his chest. "Is that such a bad thing?"

"Are you kidding?" He still had a death grip to the raft, but his eyes sparkled as he leaned down towards her. "It's why I love you." Liam sealed his sentiments with a kiss. Their lips were soaked from the drop and their wet skin slid first apart then back together.

As he returned to sitting back, she nestled in tighter against his chest, his body. A treat to stare at, no doubt, but it was his warm heart and generous arms that really caught Ryder's attentions. Okay, the abs helped a lot too. Peering up at the sky, she laughed, "Totally survived a waterfall."

"I can cross that off my bucket list."

"Traveled to another galaxy, kicked some alien ass, revived long lost ancient alien tech, made planets livable for so many people. There's not a lot I have left on mine," Ryder mused.

The raft drifted onward towards the final destination of the water, but without the rapids or the fall to drive it, the journey was slow, and languid, and perfect. Liam let one of his hands loose of the tight grip in order to wrap an arm around her chest. Together they stared skyward at the bright blues of humanity's new home.

"That's why I'm always adding more to mine," he said. "Got to have a reason to get up in the morning."

"This isn't enough?" Ryder purred as she drew her hands down his taut thighs and tipped her head back to try and get another kiss.

"Okay, you got me," Liam admitted while administering the only balm she needed after surviving another minor brush with death. "This is pretty amazing, far more amazing than I ever thought possible."

"Damn straight," Ryder chuckled. She twisted around to her stomach and rolled onto her hands to stare at the man she first met while leaping into the air. His eyes pinched at the front, uncertain at what she was doing, while he ran a tongue over his lips.

"What?"

That cheeky smile, quick to butt up against any protocol that was too starched and polished, beckoned Ryder closer. She placed one hand upon the raft, digging in to keep from slipping, and crawled higher up his body. Liam assisted, an arm locking behind her back to help. Moving closer, Ryder rose up to kiss him when a twinkle of blue light caught her attention.

"Holy shit," she gasped in true awe as the raft drifted into a beautiful lagoon. The water was bright teal, all but hummed with color, and more crystal clear than anything they could get out of the purifiers. Popping off of it were tiny globes of light, like dancing fairies haunting around something approaching waterlilies. Best of all were the trees. Branches of silver dipped low to the ground, and the leaves weren't leaves at all, but undulating colors as if the plant itself were pulsing with light. Reds, blues, purples, greens all phased from one to the other softly across this secret cove at the bottom of a waterfall.

Liam's eyes widened as he took in this magnificent splendor. "Well that beats all. Trees that glow, and this...what are those?"

Shifting up, Ryder was about to ask SAM and scan them with her omni-tool but she paused. Sometimes the scientific answer ruined the moment. They could study it all later, when she wasn't sharing a secret lagoon with a man in water drenched clothes suckered to his body. "Fairies," she smiled to herself.

"Alright, not sure Tann will approve of that classification, but fairies is good. Reminds me of the vid _Trip Through The Ezo_. When that little girl's shuttle is hit by a truck carrying raw ezo and she gets sent to the magical upside down galaxy. It's all chaos and beauty in one glistening package."

"I thought the entire point of that story was an allusion to the dangers of biotics, least that was why my mother wouldn't let us watch it."

Liam turned to her, a smirk rising, "Yet, I bet you can sing every one of the songs. Even the one from the Red Sun they cut cause it's an obvious drug reference."

She shrugged, "Scott and I had our resources to get around parental interference."

Returning to the beauty of the lagoon, Liam gestured at what looked like a small ungulate grazing through the tall grasses. Its little red horns prodded between green tufts, while the bright white tail twitched. When it sensed eyes upon it, the creature they'd also have to study and classify bounded back for safety.

"This'll be a great place for people to cool down after all the crap. Maybe invite some of the outposts here as a vacation. Get away from the colonizing in a desert with your own private spot in a beautiful lagoon. I should call up Augie and see..."

"Liam," Ryder's hand landed upon his, curling around his fingers to stop him from booting up his omni-tool.

He blinked a moment in surprise, watching her skin envelop his, before turning to ask, "What?"

"You don't have to keep doing this."

"Doing what?" Liam laughed as if she had no idea, as if she didn't see.

"Providing for people, worrying about them, trying to make everyone you meet comfortable, happy," Ryder whispered. She wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled her face closer, "To get everyone to like you. We already like you, some of us more than others I'd add."

Liam snorted at that, "I hear you. Sussed me out then, eh Pathfinder? Here I thought that was Lexi's job to crack into my skull and put it all down in gibberish."

He couldn't stop even for a moment. Even after they set down in Meridian, Liam was back at it playing entertainment director, counselor, and drinking buddy with everyone who walked away from the crash. It was who he was, that urge to comfort stronger than anything Ryder'd ever seen. It was why she fell so hard for him. But...

"You deserve a break every once in awhile. A real one, away from shouldering everyone's burdens, wearing their worries like a cloak."

"I know, I get it. I just..." Liam shifted in the raft to stare up at the sky. He kept a grip to Ryder's hand and she rolled with, falling back into his lap to join him. "Cross the stars, settle into a new home, make something new, ya know. It's what I've dreamed about."

"Wake up to find the golden world's trying to kill you, oh and so are a thousand aliens who want to exalt your entire species. Must be regretting that dream, Kosta."

He snorted, the tip of his tongue darting across his lips before he turned to stare in rapture at her. Twisting his head, he curled a hand against her cheek and smiled, "Not for a second. I'd never have met you, certainly not charmed you with my crazy plans. Even if some of them end in us almost getting spaced."

"Oh Liam," Ryder smiled. She cupped her hands against his shoulder to gaze right into his eyes, "It wasn't that that charmed me."

"No? I thought the jump jets was pretty good. Jaal gave it a hearty thumbs up."

She snickered at the idea of the two of them collaborating on such a plan to romance her. At least there wasn't any angaran poetry involved. "It was wonderful, as are all the little things you do, but...I like you for you. No, I love you for you. Your spirit, your generous heart, your flippant tongue, your diagonal approach to life." Ryder lay her palm flat to his chest, feeling the thrum of his flexing muscles and the echo of his heart below her cold fingertips. "And there are so many out there in the colonies and beyond who feel the same. You don't have to keep winning us over Kosta, you've already caught us."

"Okay," he smiled, his head tipping down as she spotted the signs of a blush blooming over his cheeks. "Okay, fair enough, maybe I do go a bit overboard. But...I like doing nice things for people. It's just who I am."

Ryder nuzzled her cheek against his and sighed, "I'm not saying stop, just don't run yourself ragged. Leave a little back for Liam. As they say, all things in moderation."

His eyes narrowed a bit and he ran his palms against her cheeks. Seeming to not find what he was looking for, he reached behind to tousle her soaking hair only to find it full of knots. Ryder watched a moment before asking concerned, "Okay, what are you doing?"

"Checking to see if you're secretly an asari commando, because you're suddenly sounding a lot like Cora."

A belly laugh erupted out of her throat at the twinkle in his eye. "Would Cora have dropped a raft over a waterfall and found this?" She moved to encompass the lagoon, but Liam snagged her hands and drew her tighter to him for a kiss.

Butterflies twisted in her stomach at his touch, always certain but generous. Liam never gave her a hint that he was anything but all in for this. There was nothing in this galaxy that could slow him down, and - after dying three times only to come back - there was little that seemed to do it to her either. While he drifted away from kissing her, his hands circled around her waist, pinning the soaking wet shirt even tighter.

"You deserve a break," Ryder insisted, playfully rubbing her thumb against his nose.

"You're the boss. Though not sure how hanging around in a private cove with a beautiful woman could ever count as work."

Ryder smiled then turned out towards the still teal waters. "Kosta?"

"Yeah?"

She lifted an eyebrow and turned back to him, "Can you swim?"

"Sure. Everyone learned in..." His words trailed off as Ryder grabbed onto the hem of her shirt and yanked it clean off. "Uh, um, that place that I was...what was I saying?" Liam adorably grasped for words as Ryder shed her clothing piece by piece into the raft's bottom. His eyes lingered upon her breasts and down the curve of her waist, until she turned her back to him and stood up. Even still, she knew he was staring right at her ass as she tucked up her knees.

Without a care in the galaxy, Ryder leapt off the raft straight into the water. It caressed her naked body, chilled but not cold, as she paddled around to face the man she left gobsmacked. "Well...?"

Liam's smile nearly cracked his face in half. First the shirt came off, his sculpted body calling for her hands. In due time she could trace every muscle, traipse down that tempting sienna skin as she wrapped her entire body around him. For now they had to wave back and forth to keep her head above water. Struggling off with the pants, Liam kicked both pieces of clothing into the raft. He stood only fully naked a moment, clearly excited to see her, before pinching his nose and leaping in to join her.

Laughing at the splash splattering her face, Ryder paddled near where Liam vanished, her body flushed with the thrill. When he emerged, he barely had to wipe the water away before wrapping one hand around her back. Tugging her closer, he placed his lips to hers and they clung tight. Locked by the lips and their hands, they supported each other by paddling with the free hands.

The fairy lights increased, a soft yellow light wafting across their faces while the trees seemed to dim. They had their own romantic candle light as Ryder's body folded into Liam's. "I love you," she whispered, giving up on paddling in order to wrap her hands around the back of his head.

Liam laughed, "I love..." He got no farther as Ryder plunged her lips onto his and the pair of them vanished deep into the secret teal waters of their home.


	3. Jaal

**_This short's a Jaal romance with spoilers for the end of the game:_**

* * *

Warm, angaran hands wrapped around Ryder's stomach as she tried to peer deeper into the metal drum. A plorp erupted from the briny depths, but the man behind her didn't seem to much care. Lips trailed gently against her skin starting first at the nape of her neck. The kisses were little more than warm whispers but as he dipped lower, tugging down to create a gap between her uniform's shirt, his teeth grazed against her shoulder.

"Jaal," Ryder clung tighter to the pot, trying to focus and not burn herself or the food. It was damn near impossible as the alien with seemingly no shame kept pushing every button he knew.

"Yes, dearest?" his voice purred behind her ear and there went that leg shaking again.

She could ask him to stop, to let her finish this in time, but it was rare for the Tempest's galley to be empty and rarer for the two to have so much free time alone together. "Could you hand me the basil?"

"Which is this base-ill?" he rolled around the human word on his tongue, which was enough to conjure up memories of what else he could roll with his tongue. Focus here, you've got to get this done or you'll have a lot of awkward questions to answer to.

"The big green leaves," she pointed to one of the first herbs out of cryo. The fact it grew like a weed on Earth helped it to fill in gardens on Eos and Elaaden. She'd swiped a few early ones they'd set up on hydroponics on the Nexus - there were some perks to being Pathfinder after all.

Jaal placed the basil into her fingers and she worried the leaves a bit before dropping them into the pot. The smell struck her instantly, true basil just like the kind her mother grew in their tiny pots on the Citadel. It was artificial light that gave them life instead of the sun, and a dip in water rations instead of rain, but having that piece of Earth while in space was a welcome touch of home.

"You are smiling, darling one," Jaal said. He was no doubt smiling too.

"I was thinking of home," she twirled the spoon through the red-orange liquid watching her beloved basil sink to the depths. "I mean," Ryder paused and turned to her lover she found in another galaxy, "the Milky Way. This is home."

Jaal's lips twisted up and he pressed a kiss to her palm. "Are you saying that on my account?"

"No," she sighed. His purple mouth drifted higher up her wrist in kisses that were gaining pressure. If he used his teeth again, she was a goner. "Just reminding myself that we have a home. Meridian."

"It is an amazing feat," he broke from torturing her to stare into her eyes. The man couldn't stop singing her praises about discovering this place, as if he wasn't there by her side spitting in the archon's eye right along with her.

"One I couldn't have done alone," Ryder tipped her head back against his shoulder, her eyes closed as she kept stirring the tomato sauce.

His chest, so alien but comforting, wrapped around her back as Jaal whispered. "True, but is that not also the truth of life? Nothing we ever do is alone, we touch the stars and they, in turn, touch and guide us."

A laugh reverberated up her throat, "I never thought I'd be the type to fall for a philosopher."

"Really? What variety of partner did you see yourself with? How did Peebee put it? The lone wolf, whatever that is."

Ryder felt a blush sting her cheeks, but she shook it off. "No, not that. Just, I don't know. Talking shop about the Protheans and what I'd discovered was fun with my fellow scientists but... We aren't a family that sits around waiting for life to happen and it's not easy for people to keep up with."

"Ah, you require someone that's both bold but also considerate." He tipped his chin and those blue marbles for eyes stared through the distance. "I can see why you had to traverse to an entirely new galaxy to find that."

A fresh laugh erupted up her throat and she turned to Jaal with a smile. "You are an amazing find," she whispered, leaning closer. He cupped against her waist steadying her as Ryder lined up for a kiss. Before she touched his lips, she added, "The best I've ever had." When their bare skin made contact, a light charge lifted every hair on her body. It was like goosebumps and butterflies all crashing together at once. And it happened for every light touch. The longer, lingering ones could catch her breath in her throat.

"I adore you, Ryder," Jaal said in his booming voice, "and am grateful that your family is so daring in their endeavors."

Family. _Shit!_ Ryder spun back to find the tomato sauce behaving, but the pot of water was reaching boiling. The oven was little more than a glorified heat lamp inside a box, but the stove could at least get liquids to 100˚C. Reaching over, she snagged up the strands of pasta they were kind enough to extrude for her out at Food Processing. It was a bit too thick to be considered spaghetti but nowhere near enough like anything else.

Cracking the dried batch in half, Ryder plummeted the strands into the boiling water and watched. "I wonder what flour that's made out of," she mused to herself.

"Flower? We are consuming flowers for this meal?"

"No, it's...we take a grain and grind it to a dust. Then use that to form the noodle thanks to water and, probably some other stuff. You're quickly learning us Ryders aren't exactly galactic renowned chefs."

Jaal leaned over, trying to get a whiff of the sauce she should have started an hour earlier. "The Angaran consider food to be a source of life, a gift given between those who create it to those who consume it. We are all trained from a young age in the arts of cooking, same as fighting, or sewing, or showing affection."

She twisted over, fully abandoning her pots to stare at this man. Poet, marksman, resistance fighter, philosopher, engineer, scientist, sewer, and potentially a chef as well? It was as if someone wrote down every winning trait in a mate and then jammed them all inside of this far flung alien. The fact he was incredibly affectionate and had no problems announcing it to any and all kept pushing Ryder into thinking she was still inside Cryo dreaming him up.

"Are you telling me, on top of everything else you can do; the weapons you rebuilt, that star map you made, the vibrating thing you can do with your tongue."

At that Jaal snickered. He never blushed, so Ryder often had to make it up for him - her cheeks lighting up twice as bright even if she was the one to bring it up. Waving her spatula around, she continued, "And you're also a great cook?"

His hands swept against her jaw, the fused fingers thrumming tighter to the bone as those oceanic eyes darted across her face. Tipping forward, Jaal whispered, "No, I am in fact a terrible cook. I was taught by the mothers, but it simply didn't stick."

Ryder smiled, leaning forward to kiss him as she sighed, "There goes my 'this is all a dream' theory." Turning back to the stove, she eyeballed the spaghetti still drowned in the bubbling pot.

"You considered this a dream?" he returned to wrapping a hand around her stomach, his warm breath drifting closer to her neck.

"Not really," she laughed, "far too many bruises and lacerations for it to all to not be real. Though if you tell me you're some long lost prince I may have to revise that." Ryder dipped the spoon into her tomato sauce and then brought it to her lips. It tasted off. Nothing could compare to her grandmother's cooked fresh off the coast of Sicily every summer. But as she swallowed and tried another taste, the more muddled tomato, basil, and hint of kaerkyn broth flavors warmed her over.

"Here," she cupped her hand under the spoon and directed it to Jaal's lips. Slowly he took a gentle touch of the sauce, his eyes rolling tight as he tasted her attempts at cooking.

"It is..." Jaal blinked a bit, then took another lick of the spoon, "I rather enjoy it. Full of body, with a tartness that stings on the edges."

"That'd be the acid in the tomatoes. I would have cut it down with sugar but it seems Peebee's run off with the entire bag we had. I'd ask why but I fear what the answer would be," Ryder laughed. She spotted her pasta rising to the surface like an ancient monster pursuing a submarine.

Yanking the pot off the stove, she said, "Food's important to humans too. Not all of it, we don't treat say the nutrient bars in our ration packs like anything special...most don't, at least. But this was a dish my grandmother would make."

"Your family," Jaal whispered, his head tilting to the side.

While the pasta drained, Ryder's mind tripped back to that little house in the rolling countryside. They'd chase chickens for days, running through the olive groves the locals owned and, in general, just happy to be off the cramped space station. Even with the Citadel being the creme de la creme of space living, nothing could compete with the freedom of running on dirt and staring across an endless horizon.

"My grandmother would make this for us whenever we visited. Though she used fish sauce, which I'm afraid we aren't going to be making here anytime soon."

"Fish sauce?" Jaal coughed, his eyes wandering over to a trio of bottles as if he feared to catch something floating in it.

"Ah, well, it's when you take fish and then soak them in salt water for...a very long time. Makes everything taste better. She picked up the habit from her mother, who came from a different island. There was nothing my grandma wouldn't add fish sauce too. Scott once asked for chicken nuggets, like the kind they'd put on transit shuttles to shut kids up.

"Instead of thawing some frozen chicken byproduct that was probably five years old at the back of a deep freeze, Gran soaked those chicken tenders in buttermilk, spices, and her go to fish sauce over night before frying them up," Ryder mused to herself. They'd been all of six and of course threw a fit about not getting the frozen ones they expected. She'd give anything to taste her grandma's chicken tenders once again.

Realizing her companion fell silent, Ryder plopped the spaghetti onto a big plate and turned to him, "And I've completely lost you."

He smiled, "The words did not fully translate, but..." Jaal pushed back the hair dusting her cheeks, hiding it behind her ear, "your face lit with happiness as you spoke of your mother's mother. And that is heartwarming to see."

Forgetting she was holding a plate full of spaghetti, Ryder slipped closer to her lover. The plate stuck between them but she leaned across the gap, aching to kiss him. Just as they were about to touch lips, a spark dancing off of Jaal to wake hers alive, the door to the galley sprung open. Ryder's eyes swung up to find her little brother standing awkwardly in the hallway.

"Scott!" she smiled, staggering up and attempting to bury away the blush. He had a bottle in his hands, that he kept patting senselessly while staring at how close his sister drew to an alien. He'd only known of the angaran for a few weeks since waking up, and hadn't really met any since they touched down on Meridian. This was going to be interesting.

"Hey Sis, got your note and..." he lifted his nose in the air and sniffed, "are you making Grandma's sauce?"

"Yup, I thought that..." Ryder shook her head and wiped her hands down her pants. Maybe she should have swiped an apron out of stores the way Vetra suggested. "Let me start over. Scott, this is Jaal."

Scott laughed, but reached over to shake the angaran's hand, "You don't need to get all formal there. We met during the party."

"Yes," Jaal finished shaking hands the human way, then he guided Scott's fist to show him how angaran greeted each other. Like a true Ryder, Scott was more than happy to go along, curious to get it right. "And then later during Peebee and Drack's afterparty."

"You can remember that? I mean any of that?" Scott blinked wildly, fading back to the safety of being just inside the galley.

"A little, if I don't think too hard," Jaal laughed.

Ryder tugged a few plates out of the cupboard and began to divvy out her concoction. "I just thought that it might be good to have a quieter meet and greet, a chance to talk without worrying about Peebee setting her bot to strobe."

"Or your engineer cranking every speaker on the Hyperion so loud it blew out half the relays," Scott added in. "But alright, I get you." He turned to the alien and folded his arms, "So Jaal, what's your story?"

"This may take some time," Jaal's eyes darted over to Ryder who was piling more of the sauce onto the plates.

"Which is why I made food," she shoved the first one into the guest's hands, then the second into Jaal's. "So we can all sit, relax, and talk about things."

"A wise idea, dearest," Jaal sighed, wrapping a hand around her waist while balancing the plate in the other. She caught Scott's eyes bulging a moment at the public affection and Ryder winced. The crew was getting used to Jaal's open everything and so was she. Others however...

Shaking it off quickly, Scott threw on a smile, "I don't know about you two, but I'm starving to eat anything that's not hospital jello."

"Gel-o?" Jaal tilted his head.

"We have much to discuss," Scott laughed, the three settling in to trade backstories while shoveling food into their faces.

It went well at first, Jaal forced to once again explain angaran culture to some alien fresh off the boat. Ryder wondered if he ever grew tired of it, but the way his wondrous eyes sparkled and his hands became animated she suspected it was partially why he volunteered to join her ship that first time. Scott was on his more or less best behavior, asking a few questions and making certain they were all on the up and up.

Taking a pull of the wine he must have scammed off Addison, Scott sighed, "It is so nice to be out of bed, any bed."

"How long until you have leave to get out into the field?" Ryder asked.

"What? Don't tell me you miss me already?"

She reached across the table to lightly slug her brother in the arm. Scott winced at the soft jab, furiously rubbing it. Glancing down, Ryder admitted, "You know I do. Losing Dad was..."

"Yeah," he blinked a moment. "But, look at all you got up to without him."

"Wasn't that how we usually worked? Hard to be trapped in someone's shadow when you never see the one casting it."

They stared at each other a moment across the table, neither having the time to process what losing their distant father meant. Neither wanting to. It was heartbreaking, but also numb, not the same as their mother. Which...God, she didn't know what to think about that mess. Hope. Life. Ryder's head hung down in exhaustion and she felt Jaal's hand skim against her shoulder. Glancing over, she smiled at the man who'd been watching the sibling reunion carefully.

"So," Scott shifted up from his seat, "how did you two meet?"

"Her ship crash landed on my planet and my people agreed to assist these aliens rather than destroy them," Jaal summed up.

"Though you could have always killed me in my sleep," Ryder jabbed back, remembering well his half hearted threat upon their first meeting. She paused and smiled, "It's probably a lot easier now, too." Jaal skimmed his forehead against hers, the magenta ridges upon the top cresting past her skin. It was strangely soothing.

"Yeah, I meant the other part. You two being a...together thing." Scott shifted higher and then scoffed, "Out of the two of us, I thought it was going to be me who seduced an Andromeda alien."

Ryder snorted, "With what skill?"

"I've been told I'm rather debonair, thank you very much."

"Asari dancers looking for a bigger tip don't count," she cut back with and her brother glared.

Scott looked about to list his better attributes, which she could chop down without trying, but his eyes swung to Jaal instead. "Me? What about your past, oh charming as chalk sister of mine. Wait until I tell your boyfriend? Is that what you're going with?"

"I...uh," she caught his marble eyes and faltered. It wasn't wrong, but it didn't feel right either. Maybe the angara had a better term. English kinda crapped out once you got past the age of 30 when it came to love.

Jaal scooped up her hands and smiled, "Dearest is what I call her."

"Okay, well, Sister's Dearest, you want to know about the time she stuffed an entire wad of cotton up her nose?"

"Scott!" Ryder launched forward, trying to catch her good for nothing brother but he dodged fast from her grasp.

"We had no idea she did it until there's my sister with her head snapping forward in a sneeze..."

Ryder scrambled further over the table, almost snagging onto his collar to get him to stop, but Scott weaved again, his eyes never breaking off of Jaal's. "A spray of snot and cotton coats the teacher's desk. This prissy old Turian lady just taps her mandibles and says...and says..."

He was having trouble speaking because Ryder managed to hook her arm around his neck in order to try and catch him in a headlock. Scott bent lower, his face turning bright red from the strain. How often on the Citadel did she have to do the same damn thing to him? It was a wonder her little shit of a brother ever survived long enough to get out to Androma. Wiggling like a fat cat trying to sneak in through a too tight pet door, Scott's ear snagged on Ryder's arm and he popped up.

"She says, 'Young Lady, our nose is not a storage device.'"

"I swear to god, I am going to kill you," Ryder threatened, leaping towards her brother. He deftly dodged her grip but missed a biotic yank that twisted him in his seat. Collapsing his palms together, Scott wrapped his elbow around Ryder's neck and then pulled her deeper into his armpit.

 _Crap!_ She could send him flying up to the ceiling, or shatter the bones in his body with her shockwave, but... Giving in, Ryder stopped squirming in order to wrap her arms around her little brother in a half hug. "I'm glad you're back," she whispered.

It took Scott a moment to release his death grip, afraid she was trying to pull some sneaky move, but Ryder meant it. They'd never been a close-knit family, even the twins fading away as she took to traversing Prothean dig sites while he was assigned to the relays. Traveling to a new galaxy, watching Dad die in front of her, Ryder clung to what little she had left. Her eyes glanced over at Jaal. How much more could she add to her family? She felt a flush rising in her cheeks at the thought. The openly emotional angarans were really rubbing off on her.

Shoving away her brother, Ryder rose up and tried to adjust her hair back into something other than angry squirrel. Scott nudged into her side with his elbow and he smiled, "I'm glad you survived all of this too, Sis. It'd be a lot emptier here without you."

A soft laugh rolled through Jaal's throat, his lips fluttering while the eyes shut tight. Ryder slid closer, returning to her seat, but she couldn't stop wafting a question at him. "I understand now," he smiled, beaming at her while snuggling closer, "you wished to not only show me your family, but invite me into it."

Ryder blinked. _Was that what she was doing?_

Dangerous guffaws echoed from Scott and he slapped the table. "So that's why you picked Grandma's secret pasta sauce recipe. Shit, Sis, if I knew you moved that fast I'd have told Mom to stop worrying about getting grandkids off of me."

"What?" she turned on her brother, thoroughly lost.

"Dad never told you? He made that for Mom the night he proposed."

"That wasn't..." she whipped her head over to Jaal who looked unaware but growing more curious by the second, "I didn't mean to... I hate you, Scott." Ryder jabbed her hand as if she would slice out her brother's ungrateful heart.

"Yeah, yeah," he wiped her finger away and then leaned back in his chair as if the matter was settled.

Ryder plummeted back into hers, trying to not stare guiltily at the engagement meal she had no idea she created. Beside her, her dearest was leaning closer, no doubt about to ask for clarification. Maybe it'd be best if it came from Lexi, or Cora. Liam would just muddy the waters, or be excited by the idea because then he could throw an angaran bachelor party. _Ah shit._

Doing her best to not stare death at the plate of leftover food, she lightened when Jaal whispered, "Ryder, thank you for this."

"For forcing you to suffer the excruciating company of my weasel of a brother?" she tried to sound stern, but it slipped into a smile. It warmed her heart to have Scott back and to have the two of them getting to know each other and perhaps bonding.

"I adore any opportunity to know more of you, and those who've touched your life," Jaal said full of sincerity.

"So," Scott sat forward, "what we have here is a galaxy, an entirely new one with five outposts ready for colonizing."

"Yup," Ryder smiled, her hand entwining with Jaal's, the alien that helped them get to this point. "So much to discover it makes my head spin."

"I guess I've just got one question for you, Sis," Scott inched up, a mischievous grin filling his face. "Is Eos a wedding in spring kind of place, or are you holding out hope for Kadara by summer?"

"You little..." Ryder whacked her brother in the face with a handful of cold spaghetti. Even as it dripped, leaving orange stains in its wake, Scott couldn't stop laughing and neither could she.


	4. Scott

_**After the end of the game, Ryder checks in on her brother who's ready to be assigned to either Eos or the Tempest.**_

 _ **Spoilers for the end of the game, obviously.**_

* * *

The metallic smell of recycled air struck her as Ryder crossed back into the Hyperion. She regretted having to leave behind the fresh scent of Meridian, especially as some bright violet flowers were in bloom right along the crashed sections, but Tann would wait for nothing. Not even her insisting that Liam's impromptu volleyball game he set up for some of the fresh out of cryos to get their land legs back wouldn't take long. Ryder didn't care about the score, but she'd wanted to stick around to see how Jaal would do. It was a laugh when the Angaran threw in with the rest, but he got the hang of it real fast. Soon he and the shirtless human were both squaring off across the net as if credits were on the line.

"Pathfinder," Tann's voice chirped from her Omni-tool, like it had been the entire walk over, "the transfer still needs to be approved by..."

"Yes, yes," she mindlessly droned to her arm and then nodded at a handful of engineers crowded around a panel. They'd been slowly lobotomizing the Hyperion and using what they could to create housing out on Meridian. It was strange to watch humanity's home die and be reborn from the old bones of the ship. "I'll get right on it. Give me a second."

Tann sighed, "It's a simple matter, shouldn't take more than..." Static erupted off her arm and Ryder tried to shake it away, but the director's voice and presence were gone.

She glanced up to catch Gil waving some buzzing tool back and forth. "So sorry there Ryder. These things can cause a wicked feedback over comm lines if you're not careful, and get tired of hearing that Salarian's high pitched whinging while nursing a massive hangover."

Ryder chuckled, "Too many toasts to the new father?"

"Ouch," Gil grimaced, "not so loud. I thought getting away from a screaming newborn would tamper down the headaches. Boy was I wrong. Running back to Podromos for a vacation away from shrill Salarians and nosy Turians is sounding better and better."

"I'm not stopping you," Ryder smiled, turning down the hallway. A few lights dangled off the ceiling, people either stealing the LEDs or the wiring for other matters, but the section they turned into makeshift apartments for those still living on the Hyperion remained generally intact. Before Ryder vanished, she turned to shout at Gil, "Oh, but don't steal my ship to get there."

"Isn't it technically my ship? I am the one who keeps it from nosediving into a planet's crust or whatever insane plan you have cooked up."

Shaking off the grumblings, Ryder cracked open the newest orders resting on her always crowded docket. As more awoke to Andromeda, the decisions of how to restart society fell upon a greater number of heads, for which she was grateful. She deserved a bit of a break after saving this cluster, kicking the Archon's ass, and founding five outposts. Addison was more than happy to eat up the nitty gritty problems in her own finger clawing way, but this one was all on Ryder.

A few people nodded their heads as she passed, the apartments always busy. They weren't all in a hustle to repair and fix, a few taking the time to linger around their homes. Scents of cooked meals drifted from one open door to another, people shouting out conversations across the hallway as if it was all one giant dorm. She paused at the door with a handful of engineering patches stuck to it and raised her hand to knock. "Scott? You home?" No one answered, so she tried instead, "SAM?"

"Your brother is located inside," the AI chirped up.

"Trying to play hooky again. 600 years and some things never change," she sighed, opening the unlocked door. The apartments were smaller than the ones on the Nexus, most being one room, but for the other Ryder they managed to scrounge up another door and wall. A tiny kitchen sat to the left, never touched of course. That was Scott. If you couldn't wave your Omni-Tool over a pouch to heat it up, it wasn't his idea of cooking.

Clothing was scattered around the room like a kaerkin ripped apart his laundry bag. Ryder stepped further in, noticing pants stuck to the sitting chair, a shirt bunched up on the floor, and her brother's underwear draped over a lamp. They didn't catch on fire, but the power of the light was so strong little shadows of UFOs reflected through the silk and upon the wall beyond.

For shit's sake, Scott. How was he ever in the Alliance? They'd have drummed his ass out in ten seconds if any of the LTs had to suffer this mess. Still, it wasn't as bad as his room back on the Citadel had been. For starters, there were no half eaten sandwiches gaining sentience under the couch. "Scott?" Ryder raised her voice, glancing around to realize while her brother's clothes were in the living room he was not.

"I know you're here. SAM ratted you out. Hiding won't save you from this. Just got Director Tann's transfer instructions for," she turned her screen around and read them off, "'Ryder, Scott. Sibling to Pathfinder, Male.' And right pain in the ass. Okay, I added the last bit."

Ryder sidled up next to the bedroom door and could hear breathing behind it. _What was her brother up to?_ She knocked once, then continued with the news, "Tann wants you on Eos. Thinks that it will show stability to the cause if there's a Ryder on our first outpost. But if you want, I can throw my weight around and get you transferred to the Tempest."

She waved her fingers over her Omni-Tool to close the orders then glanced up, "I bet Tann's pulling this crap because he's terrified of the idea of the Ryder twins teaming up and..." The bedroom door opened not to reveal her brother stumbling into a uniform, but a very harried looking Turian racing as fast as she could to escape before the Pathfinder recognized her.

Unfortunately, Turian's couldn't cloak like Angarans.

"Vetra?"

"Ah, uh, Ryder," she blinked a few times, then stood up straight, not glancing back at the man she left stretched across the bed grinning like the satiated cat burping up feathers. "I was just...going back to the ship. That's where I'll be if you need me."

Ducking her head down deeper into her armor's neck as if she was trying to cover her face, Vetra ran fast to the door. She almost made it out, when the Turian paused and tugged a pad off the filthy table. Vetra caught Ryder watching, and her mandibles fluttered in what had to be embarrassment before she scuttled out the door.

"What was that about transfer orders?" Scott hummed, tugging a shirt on as if nothing happened.

"You sly dog," Ryder whipped back to him, stomping into his room then pausing. Terrified of what she might accidentally step on, she hugged the doorframe and crossed her arms. "Vetra? You and Vetra?"

Scott paused with only one arm inside his shirt and extended the clothed one wide. "We were having a lively discussion."

"Uh huh, that required you to be shirtless."

"The best do," he smiled with a cheeky grin that was always getting him into and out of trouble.

"When in the hell did this start?" Ryder was gobsmacked. She hadn't seen any of the signs, not even Liam giving Vetra shit for it. Sweet hell, did no one else know?

"I don't remember exactly," Scott's head disappeared into the shirt before popping free. "The party, we were talking about things. Mostly you, at first, all the crazy shit you got up to out there. Then other stuff. Stuff from the Milky Way. Turned out she used to run with a gang of smugglers that'd dip a little too close to the relay I was guarding. That thawed the ice."

Ryder pinched into the bridge of her nose, unable to stifle the laugh. _"Hi, turns out we were once shooting at each other. Isn't that interesting? Why yes it is. Wanna make out?_ "

Ruffling his hair up, Scott tipped back to stare at the plastic ceiling, "All right, let's hear it. Come on, I can already hear all the stuff building up inside you waiting to leap out."

"Stuff?"

"Arguments," Scott clasped his hands together and pitched his voice higher to try and mimic her as he always did to piss his sister off. " _Oh Scott, we're humanity's last hope. We should be propagating the species. You really need to set a better example for all those exiles, and Krogan, and Angaran. What if they find out that the Pathfinder's brother is a wanton man? It could be war._ "

Ryder folded her arms tighter, waiting for Scott to finish blinking his eyelashes like an old southern belle. "Are you done?"

"Probably, unless you give me a minute to think of more."

"I'm happy for you, you ass," Ryder reached far over the filthy bedroom to slug her brother in the arm. "Vetra's a good choice. Strong, determined, pretty scary at times."

"I think you just described all turians," Scott chuckled, but he stared down at the carpet, his smile easier.

"She'll do you some good. And maybe talk you into cleaning up this apocalyptic disaster of an apartment. Mom would have your hide nailed to the wall for this, you know."

Scott groaned, running a hand through his hair as he staggered up to his legs. "Thank's Sis. Though, it's not as if you're one to talk. Didn't you have that god awful crush on some turian in C-sec?"

"Uh..." Ryder shifted on her toes, feeling very hot in this climate controlled room. "Maybe."

"Had blue on his face, can't remember his name though," Scott mused to himself.

"It was that voice. That was a voice worth getting arrested for," she sighed in memory, then chuckled at an old crush going on 600 years dead. "You best be good to Vetra, don't break her heart."

Scott placed a hand to his chest, "I know she's a good friend of yours, a member of your team. I'd never do anything to endanger that."

"No, I meant if you do there's a high chance you'll have a four hundred pound, cranky as shit Krogan come barreling after you."

Horror dawned across Scott's face as Ryder slowly nodded her head. And once Drack was finished, there'd be Jaal for certain, Gil, probably Peebee too for good measure. They looked after their own, whether you had blue skin, bony plates, could breathe underwater, or came from a different galaxy. They were family.

"Ah shit, I know that look," Scott interrupted her thoughts. "That's the 'I'm about to do something devious' grin."

Ryder slugged into his arm, "You're such a worrier. This is why I got unfrozen first. They figured you'd worry our Golden World to death."

"Me? Um, who was the one to leap across that canyon when we were ten? While you sat back the whole time shouting 'No, no, you'll never make it.' Shows what you know."

"The one where you fumbled the landing and broke your ankle, you mean?"

"Still made it, didn't I?" he laughed.

Reaching out, Ryder snagged her little brother in a hug. He groaned a bit, but gave in. "I'm glad to have you up and about."

"Another Ryder giving the Helios cluster a good shake to see what falls out."

"So," she smiled, her head swiveling out to the door Vetra walked out of, "I'm guessing this means you'd prefer a position on the Tempest. And that we're going to have to find a room that's soundproof."

"Ha ha," he snorted, his lip rising in a sneer. "You always think you're so hilarious."

"I am the funny one."

"Since when?"

She stuck her lip out, "Since always. You're the serious twin, I'm the funny Ryder. Ask anyone out there, they'll all tell you the same."

"Right, because who's going to talk back to the Pathfinder that found them Meridian? People who get kicked off to the Voeld outpost to freeze their nads off, that's who."

Ryder smiled at her brother who was tortured by the archon. Could have been killed or worse for the implant in his head. She had so little family remaining out here and if he'd been lost too... Scott rolled his eyes at her, catching on to that look again, and sighed, "Now what?"

She shook off the concern and patted her brother on the shoulder, "Let's go find something new to discover."

"Yes! Now you're talking," he snatched up his jacket, the pair of them walking to the door. Ryder and Ryder back together again. They were often a terrorizing sight on the Citadel, teachers leaping out of the way to avoid the pair that when they worked together could accomplish things beyond anyone's wildest dreams and fears. And now they were facing the wildest of them all, building a home in an entirely new galaxy. It was going to be one hell of a ride.

"You know," Ryder paused, "I had no idea Turians could blush."

Scott snickered, "Neither did I, until a few hours ago."


	5. Gil

Far too many voices circled around the deck, Cora jabbering on to Vetra about something no doubt asari related. On the other side was Jaal shouting at Liam over the comms. Ryder stood next to the Nomad, one arm through the open window to cling to the steering wheel he kept twisting back and forth. But his real attention was on the man with his head crammed under the hood.

"I'm not getting it," Gil sighed. He spread a line of tools across the front of the cold engine and would sometimes wave one menacingly at the Pathfinder who made him shove his head into their mostly all terrain vehicle.

"It's there, I swear," Ryder insisted, twisting the steering column a few more times. "A sort of chunk chunk splat noise. Whenever I do this..." he yanked hard on the wheel, the tires barely moving out of their locked position.

For a brief moment Gil lifted his eyebrow in a "You're a bloody moron" move but it faded to a small snicker as he sighed. "Fine, I shall have a look again, your pathfinderness. Not as if I have anything important to do like balancing an ezo core so the Tempest doesn't rip in half."

The not-engineer paused in his messing around to stare in shock, "That...that's not really going to happen, right?"

Gil shrugged, only the back of his head evident from Ryder's position. Then he darted up and smiled wickedly. It caused the come-what-may Pathfinder to let go of his grip and dig into the back of his uniform. The blush trying to set up shop on his cheeks made him blisteringly aware that they were surrounded by Cora, a deadly serious ex-asari commando (as if anyone could ever forget), Vetra, a less serious Turian but that's like saying a slightly less homicidal Geth. And Jaal. The Angaran unnerved Ryder for an entirely different reason, especially after the last email he received from him.

Boundaries. Someone needed to write that down in big shiny letters for the species to species first contact handbook. Asking your superior officer about his sexual preferences and then if he could watch to better understand was certainly crossing a line. One part of Ryder assumed the Angaran was taking the piss out of him, but he wasn't in the mood to see how far Jaal's curiosity went.

"Ryder," Gil slid out of the engine bloc and gathered up his tools, "I'm not saying you're imagining things, but..." He took a breath and reached up to tug down the engine hood. For a moment Ryder's eyes traced the long stretch of his body, sadly hidden behind all that uniform padding to keep engineers from frying themselves.

"Maybe in taking a turn you whipped the Nomad a little too hard and conked your head," Gil finished with. He wiped his greased up hands on a towel, but a cruel smile flitted with his lips.

In mock outrage, Ryder slapped a hand to his chest, "Are you saying I'm a shitty driver?"

"Well, Liam's shared a few fun tidbits. Like say ignoring a mountain path off the damn rock and you choosing to drive right off it," Gil bundled up his toolset back onto his belt then trailed his fingers over the curves of the Nomad. They barely caressed the hard body, tips skirting to follow the lines of the venting armor before he stopped a foot away from Ryder and smiled.

"It worked. Got to where we needed to go, no one died," Ryder shrugged. Not as if he was known for being the steady hands in such matters.

Gil snorted at the indignation and closed his eyes, "I suppose it did. Close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades and all that. Good thing too. If we lost you it'd be terrible." For a moment he let his scrubbed off fingers slide down to grip onto Ryder's hand before he added, "I'd have to answer to Cora as Pathfinder for starters."

"Ass," Ryder whispered, his eyes darting down to Gil's smarmy lips. Smashing his engineer up against the wall and plying that sarcastic mouth open with his tongue flitted through Ryder's mind, but they were due back at the Nexus soon and there were far too many people around for him to be able to smoothly abscond with Gil.

An idea twisted in his brain, and Ryder tipped his head to the Nomad. "Get in," he said and Gil blinked madly a moment.

"What?"

Ryder yanked open the door, already sliding into the driver's seat he made his own. "Maybe you can only hear the noise from inside."

"Listen Ryder, I really don't think..." Gil began.

"Do you want me to head out into the field with a faulty hoozit that could suddenly kersplat on this thing?" he batted his brown eyes as if Ryder was the poor damsel stuck on the side of the road, incapable of handling a few dozen or so Kett.

"Turn that off," Gil waved a hand near Ryder's face, smoothing away the pitiful look. Stepping around the Nomad up on its narrow blocks, Gil yanked open the second door and slid inside. With a final look around the bay, Ryder joined him.

"Cozy," Gil said, staring about at the console that wasn't so forgiving to longer legs. Over his shoulder he looked into the backseat and coughed, "How in the shit do you get a Krogan in here?"

"Half the time we make Drack stand on the top. Strap him down with a few cables, it's fine. He likes it. Says if we get him a guitar that can spew fire we'll really have something."

Gil snickered but didn't call him out, used to Ryder's brand of nonsense. It was probably why they worked so well together. "All right," he tipped his head to the side, laying an ear over the dashboard. "Give it a go."

Grabbing onto the wheel, Ryder tried to tug it into a hard turn. The man beside him closed his eyes as he strained to listen, his lips pressed thin in concentration. "What? Nothing?" Ryder spoke, "What if I do this?" He tried to swirl the wheel to the right as if attempting to pull donuts in the bay. Gil only twisted his head softly in the negative.

"Woosh Woosh Kerplunk!" Ryder whispered, trying to mimic the noise. At that Gil popped open an eye, then rolled them skyward.

"I know," Ryder flipped on the Nomad, the lights rising to circle the dashboard. He booted up the onboard sensors, the six wheel drive, and more importantly the boosters.

Beside him, Gil shifted up into his seat. "Ryder, what are you doing?"

The Pathfinder waved his fingers over his omnitool, transmitting the last request before glancing back. Behind them, the bay doors dropped open. He watched through the viewscreen implanted in the console, Cora and Vetra scattering to the front of the bay as the ramp fell onto the ground below.

"This," Ryder said. Grabbing onto the clutch, he popped the Nomad into reverse and tore backwards out of the Tempest. With one hand gripping onto the back of Gil's seat, Ryder kept an eye on the landscape rushing up to meet them, and the other on his ship vanishing into the distance.

The Nomad careened straight down off a small mountain or large hill. Whatever one wanted to call it. "Shiiiit!" Gil cried, tugging the restraints down to lock tight over his chest. His eyes darted over to the Pathfinder a moment before honing in on the bright sky of Kadara above them. Mountainous rock scattered past their backwards descent, the momentum picking up speed as it tugged forward both engineer and some guy they gave the keys to the galaxy to.

"Ryder," Gil had his eyes on the back facing computer screen, both beginning to bug out. "Ryder, there's a huge geyser right behind us."

"Yup," was all he said, the man unable to hide the laugh in his voice. Steaming, sulphuric acid bit through the air. The geyser split apart the landscape, the erupting greys filling the entire back half of the window in deadly water, which they were about to drive the Nomad straight through.

One. Two. Three. Four. Ryder spotted the descent, the spewing acid receding back into the ground from which it emerged. Jamming his foot down on the accelerator, the car already flying backwards down a mountain sped up. Gil ducked down as if he could shield himself from any acid spray with his hands instead of the armor around the Nomad.

With a bounce, the 6 wheels landed upon the ground, squealing to dig over the squishy dirt. Ryder could feel the geyser about to spew again, a few spurts firing upwards into the sky like spits of water. Just a little bit...

Rocketing right over the geyser, Gil let out a sound that was part scream, part gurgle while Ryder remained deathly silent. He rolled with the Nomad itself, the vehicle sliding down into the flats while the rumbling crust of the planet tried to shoot them back into the atmosphere. Not today.

Jamming on the brakes, Ryder spun the wheel fast, the Nomad twisting with him just as the geyser sputtered back to its glorious reach into the heavens...a foot to the side of the vehicle. The sulphur sparkled against the atmosphere, turning it a greenish yellow that reminded him of old gemstones back home. You had to get real close to see it, a rainbow of greens sometimes streaking through the unforgiving water. It was beautiful.

Gil pressed his face up to the glass, watching what Ryder spotted his second or third trip to the pirate planet. "See," Ryder laughed, adjusting the Nomad to turn towards the path, "I can too drive this thing."

"Nearly getting us killed by falling off a mountain and then running over a geyser hardly counts as..." Gil's ranting paused as he turned those green brown eyes at him. "All right, you can handle this thing...backwards."

"Damn straight," he chuckled, "Now hang on, we've got a mountain to climb," Ryder switched the Nomad around, dropped back down to four wheel drive and aimed to climb up one of a dozen of Kadara's pointy bits. While the view of mountains and teal water whipped past them, he kept glancing over at the engineer staring out the window.

"Is this your first time here?" Ryder asked, shifting back to six wheel. This was going to be one hell of a climb, the little road of ruts vanishing out from under him. Oh well, if there wasn't an obvious path he'd make one.

"What? You think Suvi and I regularly nick this thing while you're sleeping? Go for a few joyrides out on the planets while none's the wiser?" Gil asked, his voice straining to be heard over the groan of the Nomad's engine.

Ryder shrugged, "I would."

"How in the hell did you make it one day in the Alliance? Not saying I'm arguing with your methods just... Someone like you they tend to hammer down hard."

"My dad," Ryder's foolish laughter snapped away a moment, a dark spot rising in his gut. "He was the type to keep us corralled in. I'm nothing compared to my sister. She's the real hellion in the family."

"I'd say I'd like to meet her, but I fear she'd drop us out of orbit," Gil said, both of them bouncing as the Nomad churned apart boulders left in their way.

Ryder reached over with his free hand and gripped onto Gil's knee. For a breath their eyes met with a small promise, when the Nomad tipped far to the left. Grabbing fast to the clutch, Ryder tried to right the damn thing before he flipped it. It only happened once, and the Krogan swore he'd never tell a soul.

"Really though? You were around for fourteen months and you never once nabbed a shuttle and headed off to Kadara or anywhere else?"

"Funny thing about threat of exile, sounds like it'd be a blast in the brochure, but then you get out there and realize it's nothing but eating lizards and drinking your own piss. I'll pass," Gil said, the Nomad finally getting back on track. "Should I be listening for anything or...?"

Twisting the steering wheel and the car, Ryder glanced over at the man. He could hear it again, the kerplunk under the normal gravel sounds of this beast trying to make a turn. Gil nodded his head a moment, surely figuring out whatever was going on, when he sat up and smiled, "Nope. You're imagining it."

"I am not. Listen," Ryder waved a hand through the air, as if that could make sound legible like text. For a beat Gil did as asked, his eyes shut tight while his head bobbed and weaved with the rocky terrain.

A hand gripped onto Ryder's knee and slowly slid up higher on his thigh. When Gil's fingers dug into the muscle, Ryder struggling hard to focus on the path ahead he'd barely been caring about, a smile lifted upon the engineer's face. "Most guys don't go to such elaborate ruses to get me alone with them."

"What made you think I'm like most guys?" Ryder tried to whisper in a seductive tone but with the roar of the Nomad it sounded like he was shouting it through a jet engine. "But it's there, I swear. I've been hearing it for days now and it'd maddening."

"Get 'er somewhere we can stop, where this beauty won't roll backwards into a sulfur lake to dissolve, and I'll have a proper second look," Gil said. He let go of Ryder's thigh and settled back into his seat, but that gleam in his eye didn't diminish.

Putting all his focus into driving, while stealing the occasional glance out of the corner of his eye at the sexy passenger riding shotgun, Ryder managed to get the Nomad up to the top of a peak of rock. This one jutted like a broken bone out of the dirt, but was kind enough to have something approaching a flat top. At least it was wide enough to hold the Nomad as it crested to a gentle stop. Locking in the brakes, Ryder turned off the engine and watched as Gil unhooked the restraints to get out.

The engineer strode around to the hood of the vehicle, his fingers once again dancing across the skin of the Nomad. When he got to the front he nodded at Ryder and their eyes locked. Not even breaking the line of sight, Ryder's hand fumbled for the switch to pop open the hood. Gil vanished from his sight as the metal sheet rose and he got back to inspecting.

With a sigh, Ryder slid out of the open window, his ass landing upon the frame as he tried to watch Gil work. While it was somewhat entertaining to see the man running back and forth in a panic, dual spanners in his fingers, trying to solder scraps of the ship back together, there was something to a man and a car that drove Ryder's imagination wild. That tuft of hair Gil always had sculpted into shape waned from the ride. Sweat courtesy of the hot engine glued the hair to his forehead, which the focused engineer barely noticed.

His forearms flexed tight, Gil leaning hard into his grip upon the chassis as he stared deeper into whatever was annoying Ryder. Would it be too much to ask him to lose the uniform? Shirt first, his naked arms digging into the greased up bits and bobbles of the Nomad while Ryder helplessly watched on. The pants part would probably solve itself after that.

"Well?" Ryder called, his hand digging into the top of the Nomad while he leaned as far as he could outward. Gil turned to find the man practically falling out of the window. His eyes trailed away from Ryder's face to his own biceps straining from the pull. It was enough to revive Ryder out of his helpless state, who tugged himself out of the Nomad and crawled right onto the top of the roof.

"There's a grit everywhere," Gil said, waving a hand towards the engine. "Did you drive into a mountain? Because that's the only way I can think to explain piles of rocks jangling about down there. Probably need a vacuum to suction them out. Otherwise..." He heaved down the hood, the entire Nomad shifting from the force, "You're imagining it."

Ryder chuckled at his certainty, before he glanced up and gasped at the view. "Gil," he waved his hand, "come on, you've got to see this."

"It's rock, more rock, and probably deadly water with rocks in it," Gil summarized, but he slipped around to the side. With Ryder's hand wrapped tight around his, the Pathfinder helped to yank his engineer up to his side. Their eyes met a moment, Ryder's hand sliding around Gil's waist to keep him steady while the lifting one remained knotted around his. Warm breath wafted across Ryder's face, this intoxicating man's lips parting in a surprised smile before he turned his head to the side.

"Holy shit..." Gil whistled, falling into place beside Ryder. The Kadara sun hit just the perfect spot to streak shafts of lights against a spire of red rock. They burst from behind, shadowing the mountain but turning the entire sky a bright orange-red. As the light leeched forward, the rays reflected off teal waters causing them to sparkle an even deeper blue.

"Pretty amazing, huh? And it's all ours," Ryder sighed. Folding onto his back, he locked his hands behind his head as a cushion. "If you ignore the pirates, and the Kett, and the Collective, and Sloane."

"Yeah, not a problem at all when you put it like that," Gil chuckled. He remained sitting, his legs curled up as he gazed around at a sunset Ryder was privileged to view a few times, when he wasn't fleeing from or to danger.

"Give me a few more days," Ryder snickered, his eyes shut tight as he breathed in the scent of sun bouncing off dirt. It shouldn't smell so good, dirt being the very essence of dirty, but after nothing but recycled air he adored it. It was real. This was real. "I should have it all under control by then."

"That's our Pathfinder, if he doesn't run you over with his Nomad, his ego will smother you."

Ryder peeked open an eye to find Gil leaning back upon his elbows. With his fingers, he traced up along the engineer's arm. Even buried under the jumpsuit, Ryder could feel him shifting, the muscles responding in kind as Gil leaned a bit closer to him. "Ego? Who needs that when I can trip them all up with my legendary charm."

"Right," Gil laughed, "Like Addison, or Tann, Kesh? Really pulled the wool over their eyes."

Ryder shrugged, "It's not universal," he let his fingers drift down Gil's chest before landing upon the hip jutting out with his sit. "But it works on those I really try for."

Breathing in deep, Gil's chest expanded to let in the rich air of an alien world in an alien galaxy. It was madness really, to be here 600 years from where they began, sitting on the top of a car caressing another man he'd never have known otherwise. The universe was so big and so small at the same time.

The man seemed to waft with the breeze, enjoying the caress of it shifting with his body, or how Ryder kept trailing his fingers up and down Gil's side. "You really don't know a damn thing about cars, do you?" Gil asked. His voice was throaty and low, but the words were trying to be as flippant as usual.

"Nope," Ryder was fine to admit. The only hard lines he wanted to trace his hands over had muscles and warm skin under them.

"Not even a little? No two day Alliance training course in the event you crash your Mako?"

He sighed, knowing there was no way he could impress the engineer with his limited mechanical skills. "I can fix a flat, change the oil, and yank a potato out of the vents." At that Gil whipped his head over, his eyebrows meeting in confusion. "Sister, drunk, long story that's not as interesting as it should be. But that's it."

Ryder leaned back to fully stretch out, enjoying the sun upon his weary bones. Memories of Sara insisting she wanted fries and was hell bent on getting them flitted through his mind. But they were painful, a reminder that she wasn't here when she should be. Ryder rolled them up and buried it all into his heart, not wanting to dredge up the darker, broody sides of life. He had a warm planet, a perfect sunset, and a hot guy to share it with.

"You're not the first mechanic I've had my eye on," he admitted, remembering back what to felt another Ryder ago in a galaxy far far away.

"Oh?" Gil tipped down onto his side, an elbow bent against the roof while his free hand traced against Ryder's chest. Shit, that felt far too good, Ryder's brain shutting off while his body kicked into gear. "So your turn-ons include grease monkeys."

"She was a poker player too, now that I think about it. Not good at it, but the way she wielded a wrench was..." The palm that'd been smoothing up and down his pecs suddenly yanked away. Ryder popped open an eye, then sat up, trying to catch Gil's attention who was staring at nothing.

"You've had girlfriends in the past," Gil stated the fact which Ryder shrugged at.

"Boyfriends too," he admitted. The fact shouldn't seem that surprising, but the man looked spooked. His ginger hair drooped even lower, Gil's eyes hooded. "What? If you're worried about an ex suddenly popping up, pretty sure they're a galaxy away and 600 years dead."

"Nah, just thinking," the quietness from Gil unnerved Ryder and he turned fully onto his side, trying to catch the man's eye. It didn't quite take, but Gil spat out, "You're quite the flirt." It sounded partially like a compliment and partially like a condemnation.

"From time to time," he admitted. "I used to give a little extra attention to some people for fun. But...I don't anymore," Ryder insisted, his heart thudding harder in his chest. He was always a bit of a charmer, true, but this was different, this was special. When he went in, he went all in. Probably why he was shit at poker. Trailing his fingers across Gill's sternum like a winding ribbon, Ryder whispered, "Someone else has all my attention now."

When Gil's eyes locked onto his, Ryder cupped his palm along the man's jaw. Tugging him closer, the scruff scratching up his skin, Ryder planted his lips to Gil's. His eyes shut tight hard, his bottom lip slipping into the man's famished mouth as heat rose from his gut. Gil tasted of the Tempest itself, all ozone and electrical equipment, but there was a touch of the ornery human below. God knows he smelled wonderful, Ryder gladly inhaling a spicy musk that reminded him of nights in Morocco during later Alliance training.

Breaking from the kiss, Gil's eyes opened and he blinked slowly. "I keep wondering, questioning if... Look," The man slid back from Ryder's grip on his face. "You're, you know me, I've got nothing against leaping in without looking. Keeps things interesting. If you take the time to question if something's a good idea then you might miss out and all that trite. But if you're not, if you don't think..."

Ryder staggered back, trying to sit up while his brain tripped over itself. "Gil, what are you on about?"

"I don't want to risk this because," he sighed, his eyes dropping down as if he couldn't face Ryder. "What if I fall too hard for you and you get...uninterested?"

"That, I mean it can happen in the abstract," Ryder admitted. "Years and years from now when I get fat and ugly," he folded out his gut and tried to get a laugh but Gil wouldn't respond. "Or...?" his eyes darted around, trying to find some explanation hiding in the sunset, "is it something else you're worried about?"

"Because," he reached over to grab up Ryder's hand in his, the grease off of the Nomad smearing against his palm's lifelines. "Because I'm not...both?"

"Oh," Ryder leaned back from him, his head drifting up to the sky. He didn't yank his hand out, but he needed a bit of distance. "It's the bi thing." Some people didn't care when they learned, some cared a lot. For whatever reason he thought Gil might be different, but gay men could get very opinionated on the matter.

"Don't you miss it? The whole...lady bits when you're with a man? I wouldn't know but it seems there are quite a few who enjoy it all," he sounded flushed and panicky, not like Gil at all. How much was this eating him up that he couldn't even make a joke out of it?

Wiping a hand over his forehead, Ryder decided to be completely honest with him. That was what Gil wanted and in truth, he did too. No holding back. "Sometimes, sure," he admitted which caused Gil's shoulder to slump, "but it's no different than a bit of fantasy. Pretty form catches you, or hot ass and you think about it for a bit. Huh, haven't thought about pie in awhile. Why not have a go at that? Other times, I crave sausage. It's..."

With an arm wrapped around Gil, Ryder leaned back onto the roof. He tugged the man tight to his chest, his fingers messing with the waning hair. "What I want, what I think about probably too much - especially when I'm driving this thing over the tenth sand dune - is you. Your ass has probably caused a few near misses and one or two collisions alone."

At that Gil laughed, his cheek digging tighter into Ryder. He let his hand swoop up and down Ryder's chest, stirring up more of those accident inducing thoughts. "I'm in this all the way. Doesn't matter if a pretty girl or handsome man tries to flirt with the famous Pathfinder. I will stand up and say, 'No, I am taken by a fantastic engineer who sometimes fixes my car after I fill it with gravel.'"

"What makes you think I'm gonna fix the Nomad? I've got my hands full keeping the Tempest together already. Let Kallo do it," Gil mumbled, his warm breath dancing across Ryder's chest. He felt safe with him curled up across half of his body, Ryder's always timpani-like bounding heart finally slowing to find a more gentle beat. That was what he needed, what he really wanted.

"You know," Ryder mused aloud, "I think I love you, even if you won't repair my car."

Rolling onto his hands, Gil reached over to straddle across Ryder's body. He parted his lips, his voice dropping low as he whispered, "I think I love you too."

Before Gil could bend down, Ryder locked his hands around the back of his head, rising up to capture his lips in a heated kiss. Quickly, it grew from overtly friendly making out to more. Gil's hot lips trailed up Ryder's smooth jawline, heading right for his ear, while Ryder's hungry fingers traced the lines of the man's body. Rolling around to find the chest pinned against his, he stumbled for that cursed zipper hidden below a flap of fabric.

Yes! He internally crowed at his triumph before groaning aloud as Gil's thick sausage prodded into his lower stomach. The fantasies he had about that one would probably turn Gil's cheeks pink. With a quick yank of the zipper pull, Ryder fully undid Gil's shirt, both ends flapping apart so he was free to slide his hands against the taut skin of the man's chest.

"Pathfinder..."

"Not now, SAM," Ryder groaned. Gil lifted up, as if he intended to back away, but Ryder hooked his hands around the man's back and dug in. He wasn't giving up for anything now, his body craving Gil and no one else.

"Director Tann has requested your immediate presence upon the Nexus."

"What?" Ryder moaned, Gil's lips working down his neck. That caused Ryder to squirm more, each kiss broken up by a gentle nip to his skin. Anymore pressure and he'd probably yelp at SAM.

"Due to your decisions with the Asari ark, he considers it vital you report to his office as soon as possible."

That damn AI wasn't going to give up for anything, nor would Tann. _Damn it!_ Ryder let his hands fall off the taut body he craved, both thudding hard to the roof of the Nomad. It was enough for Gil to get the hint he should stop. "Bad news?" he asked.

"SAM says we're due to find Tann 'immediately' or else that damn Salarian will throw a hissy fit."

"That so?" Gil muttered. Ryder wanted to bang the back of his head against the roof. A long ride back to a drop zone while he was that worked up was not going to be fun. To do it knowing he'd be getting reamed out by Tann instead of rimmed by Gil made him want to scream a few Krogan curse words. How much trouble would he get into for head-butting the salarian? Not like they could lock him up, they needed him.

Rising to his haunches, Gil booted up his omnitool. He waved a few buttons around, flashes of technical jargon rising off the neon orange light. Suddenly, the Nomad shifted hard on its axels, falling deeper into the ground. "SAM," Gil called out, "please tell Director Tann that the Nomad appears to be acting up. I'll try to fix this serious problem but we won't be able to make it to anywhere that can be picked up for..." He glanced down at Ryder and smiled, "a couple hours at best."

"I shall inform him," SAM chirped before falling silent in both their heads.

"You sneaky-" Ryder began before his words were smothered in Gil's foxy lips.

"So that's why you have a thing for mechanics," Gil laughed, quickly yanking Ryder's shirt off over his head.

Half naked, Ryder wiggled below the man and cupped his palm against Gil's skin. "Here I thought it was just for your big tool."

"Oh," Gil gasped as if he'd been wounded, "that's terrible Ryder. Just, the absolute shittiest of a joke. I'm not certain if I can fuck your brains out after that. Oh wait, yes I can."

Wrapping his arms around the man he'd never have met if he hadn't set out on this crazy plan, Ryder gave in to every dirty thought he let cross his mind. After watching Gil work from a distance, too busy to even let himself kiss the bastard, there were a lot. And somewhere out in the Heleus, Director Tann was throwing a giant fit while Ryder got laid on the roof of the Nomad during a perfect sunset. Best pirate planet ever.


	6. Reyes

Ignore.

After he released the comm button on his omni-tool Scott's hand scraped against a pile of broken glass. Thoughts of how many strains of bacteria were cultivated on a Kadara bar counter floated through his mind. He'd probably have to get a dozen shots to counteract the endotoxins before he grew a tail or something.

Eh. Gripping to his beer, he ignored the sting of a million microbes going to town on his finger, and tipped back the watered-down ale.

"Ryder," the voice in his head spoke up, interrupting a lovely drinking session.

"What SAM?" he groaned. The curious gaze of the various denizens who preferred their shadows and silence tried to sting through Scott's boozy aura, but they didn't get far. God help him, but he was getting used to talking to the AI without anyone else hearing it — concerned looks and all.

"The Pathfinder is attempting to communicate with you," SAM continued in its irritatingly chirpy voice.

Groaning, Scott rolled the pads of his hands over the bar — catching the blue glare of the Asari bartender for it. "Anyone ever tell you you're like a meddling great aunt people dump in Florida?"

That got him a sneer from the bartender, but he jabbed at his ear,."Talking to the voice in my head." It didn't really endear him to the Asari, but Scott had a long tab and people knew he was good for it. Damn near everyone in this galaxy knew who he was by proxy already.

"I do not understand," SAM kept on keeping on. "The Pathfinder…"

"Is not here," Scott snarled, wishing he could silence the AI. "My sister… Just shove off already."

He didn't intend for this to begin as a pity party. God save him, but he'd honestly been excited to embark on this mission. A real mission. Head to that pirate planet. Secure cargo for the Initiative. Something to get his ass out of bed. When he strolled up to a mechanic and found the crate was full of nothing but O-rings, Scott turned on his heel, followed the stench of stale piss and vomit, and sealed his ass to the barstool.

After missing the first rendezvous point which was an express right back to Meridian to be once again stuck under both the Doc and Pathfinder's thumbs, the calls began. Maybe he was being an obstinate jerk, maybe he didn't care. Scott nudged into the box of nearly useless bric-a-brac, the O-rings jangling. And he thought this might be interesting. Ha, as if his dear sister hadn't already found every damn interesting thing in this galaxy while he was a popsicle.

Cool glass pressed to his lip, Scott eyed up the wall beyond the bar as he tipped the beer back. A trickle of piss-warm alcohol dribbled down his throat. As he placed the empty bottle beside its brethren, he moved to raise his hand to catch the cold Asari's attention.

"Well," a male voice oozed from behind him, vowels so saturated with lust humidity klaxons pinged. The accent was enough to perk his attention even through the beery haze. "When I heard there was a Ryder on Kadara port I never imagined it'd be…"

Smacking his lips, Scott shook his head, "The not-Pathfinder one." Even annoyed, he was piqued enough to glance over his shoulder. He'd expected most of the exiles to look like they'd already been chewed up and spat out, but this man was…definitely attention grabbing.

"I was going to say 'someone so handsome.' May I?" The stranger gestured to the stool beside Scott.

Shrugging, he tried to focus on the beer and not the earthy musk wafting off the man. Was that…sandalwood? "It's a free port…" Scott muttered, before rolling his eyes over to the would-be stranger, "more or less."

The man chuckled, sliding into place. He only had to wave two fingers at the bartender to put in his order. "What have you heard?"

God, he should know that accent. Italian? Spanish? Did it even matter? Earth was six hundred years away. Neither of them would see Italy, Spain, or any other country again. Would they all have an Andromeda accents after a few generations?

Trying to blot away his bootlegged-hootch ramblings, Scott focused on the man who was eyeing him up. He'd been to his fair share of sketchy bars back in the Milky Way, always keeping one hand near a pistol. This was a different kind of eyeing. Diamond eyes, clearly used to getting whatever they wanted, traversed from Scott's hunched over shoulders, slightly flexing bicep, and back up to the scruffy jawline.

"Oh, you know," Scott picked up the conversation without glancing over at the man, "the usual. Pirates, exiles, watch where you piss or someone will steal your kidneys."

"Ha. We're trying to cut down on organ thievery, but you never know with Salarians around."

"Tell me about it," Scott mumbled, when a fresh beer landed beside him. This one looked high scale compared to the rest he suffered, with an actual label and everything. He skirted his eyes over to find his new friend popping open the same.

"So, gonna tell me your name or…"

A hungry grin rose upon those pouty lips as the man answered, "Reyes Vidal, at your service."

"My service huh?" Ryder puckered the lip of the bottle to his mouth. Speaking around it, he tacked on, "I could think of a few uses for you." Liquid courage burned away any potential embarrassment, not that he would have felt much stone cold sober. He'd already been out of the game six hundred years, dancing around for a couple more hours seemed pointless.

Reyes took a swig of his own surprisingly smooth and hoppy beer. "Do you intend to give me your name?"

"What's it matter? Everyone already knows who I am. Ryder. The Not-Pathfinder. Little brother to Andromeda's big hero." Groaning, he stared out through the swirling neon lights of the port to Kadara's once barely inhabitable landscape. He hadn't seen it before, when the water was acid geysers and dangerous. Now, it was just beautiful. "Rendered pointless in the Initiative."

He hated to think he came here to drown his sorrows, but there was no other explanation for it. Sister — big god damn hero while he either slept or laid around in a bed waiting to hear about her exploits. He was happy for her, really. Mostly. Just…

A sculpted hand gripped onto his tricep, beckoning Ryder to fall deep into those diamond grey eyes. "Well, if the Initiative cannot recognize your many talents," the glance damn near bathed every nook and cranny of Scott this go around, "I might know of a certain someone who could."

"The Charlatan?" Scott scoffed.

"You've heard of him?"

Bold as brass, Scott let his gaze linger down Reyes' taut body. God take him, but his undoing was always roguish men with accents. "A few stories," Scott leaned closer to Reyes, his hand hooking over the man's shoulder. He gripped onto the muscle below, savoring the sculpted form under too much clothing.

"Though," his breath twisted near Reyes' ear, "some of them have to be lies."

"Such as?" That captivating voice dipped lower, the breaths catching in Reyes' chest. Which also had too much clothing draped over it. The mere existence of cloth was starting to get on Scott's nerves.

His frown turned into a pout, which drew Reyes' attention to Scott's lips. Oh, they could do so much better than caress the mouth of a bottle, and he'd bet his entire ration of chocolate so could Mr. Vidal's. Shifting in his seat, Scott answered, "That the Charlatan managed to keep a _firm_ grip upon the Collective's _structure_ , even while attacking them from behind."

"You find that unbelievable?" Reyes scoffed, his tanned face drifting so close Ryder could take a nibble off the chin. Suddenly, those diamond eyes snapped up, ensnaring Scott, "Because I've heard talk that the Charlatan is as much a threat with a frontal assault as behind."

"Oh yeah?" Scott scooted to the edge of his stool, practically falling into Reyes' lap. The hand that'd kept his tricep steady slid up to the bicep, and it seemed to enjoy what it found. Lapping his lips, Scott twisted his famished mouth to the side, leaned towards Reyes' ear, and whispered, "Prove it."

* * *

"Wow."

Scott sputtered, sparks darting over his vision as he crumpled to the bed. His naked ass tipped to the side, air struggling to fill his keyed up but happy body. Hands that'd traversed damn near every hill, dip, and obscured crevice on him, started at the hip soaked in sweat. Luckily, the palm's owner didn't seem to mind, lips lapping off their exertion. One kiss plucked against his hip bone, another over a rib.

As Reyes worked his way through the smattering of chest hair, he murmured, "Praise from a Ryder. That's a high mark, indeed."

Chuckling, Scott scooped his palm around that rogue's jawline. "I'm not as hard to impress as the rest of my family." Plunging for a kiss hotter than Elaadan, as Scott lost himself in the taste and knead of naked flesh Reyes slung a leg over him.

Without a choice, Ryder tumbled onto his back allowing the man he'd thoroughly _vetted_ to rise atop him. It was no shock that the would-be leader of Kadara preferred such a position. That exploring hand flitted above the thin hairs on Ryder's thigh. "You seemed…" Reyes' wandering fingers flew through the pubic hair and gripped tight to the still pulsing guest-of-honor, "plenty hard to me."

Rising from his entrapment, Scott met the man eye to eye. With one hand hooked to Reyes' cheek, he whispered, "I have my moments…"

And just before he could plant another kiss, maybe take this into extra innings, Reyes' comm system bleeped. With a sigh, Scott folded back to the rumpled bed while the Charlatan slid away to inspect his omni-tool.

"You know," Scott began, rising to his elbows to catch an eclipse of those twin moons orbiting just beyond his reach. "If you want to get me out of here, you just have to say. I'm a big boy."

"So I noticed," Reyes purred, his teeth gleaming from the sly smile. His fingers darted around the no-doubt programmed 'clear out' beep he set up to before their bit of fun began. "This can wait," he closed off his omni-tool without even listening to the message and collapsed beside Ryder.

"You sure?" Scott tried to eye him up, well aware what this was and not caring about any implications. He was just happy to be capable of taking a walk of shame. "Don't you legitimate smuggler types have lots of business to get to?"

"Yes but…" He smiled as his palm soothed down Ryder's chest, making certain to skip over the scars left from that friendly Archon fellow. Leaning closer, Reyes whispered above Scott, "My current interests are located in this helpful position. Why hire lackeys if you have to do everything yourself?"

Ryder snickered at the thought, his fingers greedy to rustle through the man's hair. "I'm serious, though."

"When aren't you Ryders serious?"

His eyes rolled automatically at the thought. So damn many people assumed the son had to be a carbon copy of the father, and now the sister. Was it too much to let him be his own man? "Last thing I want is to get bogged down in some domesticity pair up," he admitted.

Reyes' captivating eyes sparkled at the truth. "Good," he said before dipping down and placing a kiss to Scott's slack lips. The wining and dining and personalized heart lockets were fine for others. Maybe one day, when he couldn't pick up a pistol and people screamed retirement at him he'd give it a go, but right now all Scott wanted was a good roll in the sheets. And Reyes was certainly happy to provide.

Locking his hands behind the man's head, Scott dove deep into the kisses. Reyes' calves dug into the sides of his thighs, dewey chests swiping over each other as the men gave into the better parts of being alive. Growing more certain he was up for round two, Scott drew his hand down the man's chiseled shoulder towards the trim waist. Around the curve of the ass, just as he was about to give it a slap, they both heard scuffling outside.

"Wait, you can't go in…"

The pointless pleading from said lackey was followed by the bedroom door opening to reveal a woman in shiny black armor stomping inside to take control. Her arms slid over her chest as she chastised, "Scott! SAM told me you were…" Her venom whipped away to shock as she realized her brother was about to impale another man.

"What the shit are you…?" Scott scrabbled to get out from under Reyes, both men reaching for tossed clothing. "Get out!"

"We have to talk." She wouldn't give up even as her icy cheeks burned and she narrowed her vision to the ceiling.

Rage boiled in Scott's veins. _What?!_ He couldn't have one minute to himself without her rushing in to ruin it? Jamming one leg down his pants, when Scott went to add the other he was so worked up they ripped. Loudly. More than a few cuss words erupted from his mouth, Scott snarling as he fumbled through getting dressed.

Reyes finished faster, the man already back to his dashing smuggler self. With a swagger in his step, he walked past the cooling cockblock. "Such a _pleasant_ experience when you drop by Pathfinder," he spat at her, causing her eyes to drop in shock.

Without losing his smug confidence, Reyes Vidal stepped outside leaving the two siblings seething inside his bedroom. Scott was trying to work up a sentence or two through the anger clogging his throat, when his sister beat him to it.

"What were you thinking?" she spat.

"Me? I didn't just barge in on someone in the middle of…" The twins both cringed, neither wanting to broach the subject with their sibling. "What are you doing here?" Scott snarled, finally yanking the shirt on over his head.

"You missed your check in. Your transport returned to Meridian without you. The mission was in jeopardy, and I find you…Reyes? Really?"

"Right," Scott rolled his eyes, skipping right over her opinions on who he bedded. That'd take an entire six hundred years to hash out. "My so vital mission that you could have sent a ten-year-old to accomplish it."

"Did you even pick it up?" She was clinging to her anger because without it she didn't have a leg to stand on.

Twisting around, Scott yanked up the box and hurled it towards the galaxy's beloved Pathfinder. "There ya go. One thousand metal O-rings. I'm sure acquiring them will alter the entire balance of power in Andromeda. Bet they'll make a statue of me for it."

She patted a hand to the box as if in shock he could do even a simple task. "These are important to scientists on Eos. They're running…"

Scott waved a hand through her blather. It didn't matter who needed them, or why. "There was no reason to send me here. And no fucking reason for you to come charging in with… Oh god, please don't tell me you brought…"

Through the door he heard the grumble of a Krogan outside and the gravely quip of a Turian to follow after. "Shit, your whole crew?"

"Not all of them, just…"

Scott dug into his temples, wishing he could worry himself to some other planet. Preferably one where they didn't know the Pathfinder's name. "What are you doing here?"

"You didn't answer your comms. You ignored SAM! I feared the worst on a planet of pirates and exiles! I didn't anticipate finding you in flagrante with Reyes… You know who he is, right? A smuggler? A murderer?"

Folding his hands together, Scott made the yap yap sign at his sister's haranguing.

Her voice dipped low in a whisper as she said, "The Charlatan."

"No!" Scott gasped in faux shock slapping both palms to his cheeks. "I don't know how anyone could figure out that Reyes Vidal is…of fucking course I know. I read your reports. I read all your damn reports. Every amazing thing you did out here while I was trapped inside my own skull."

Scoffing, he looked anywhere but at his sister. "I mean, you're the Pathfinder. Someone that comes with a big The in your name. Everyone knows you. Everyone loves you. And what do I get to be? A glorified delivery boy."

"Scott, I didn't…" she tried to cut in, but the boulder he'd been carting around on his back was coming off one way or the other.

"It was bad enough growing up in Dad's shadow. I thought... Here, I thought we'd all get a new start in a bright, new galaxy. Really make my mark without people asking me about Alec Ryder. Comparing me to him. And what do I get? Wake up and, oh, my sister's already found everything. Turned planets habitable. Made first contact. Discovered an ancient vault system. Defeated the kett and sent them scrambling out of the cluster."

"Are you mad at me for…" her voice warbled from what sounded like angry tears. She was always a crier, but usually not when sad. "For doing my job?"

"No," Scott gasped out, then winced. "Maybe. I'm just…" He plummeted to his ass, the soiled bed sinking as he dug both elbows to his thighs. Resting his head in his hands, he admitted, "I need more. I can't keep being that other Ryder. I can't just wander around in what's left of the Hyperion while people tell me how fantastic my sister is."

His stomach churned at his callous words and Scott grimaced. "I know you're fantastic. I mean, you're a Ryder. But…"

"I can't lose you," she spat out. "After Dad, and..." Crumbling beside Scott on the bed, she slapped her palms into her knees. Just like she used to do before having to give an oral presentation in school. "You're all I've got left."

"Hey." The inferno in his stomach cooled as Scott wrapped a comforting hand around his sister. In the half hug, he said, "You know I'm impossible to kill. We both are, as the Archon learned."

At that she laughed, but the tears still weaved in her voice. "He hurt you because of me."

"I healed," Scott flexed his arm, trying to not think about the tubes the Kett impaled inside him. "Better than before. Bet I can even beat your score at Armax Arsenal."

"No way. Last time we were in there, you shrieked at the Batarian tank that…" Her smile faded as she crumpled back to her lap. "It's probably long gone. Everything we knew just poofed like smoke on the wind."

"That's why we build new out here," Scott insisted, inching dangerously close to a pep talk. He didn't do those.

His sister caught the peppiness and her shrewd eyes rolled to him. "What? Are you gonna run your own franchise out here?"

"Maybe. After I settle a few worlds myself…assuming the Pathfinder lets me on a ship. And doesn't panic the whole Nexus if I go in communicado for a few hours."

"Hours? How did you two even… No," she parted her hands, "I don't want to know." Nibbling on her thumbnail, she finally acquiesced. "You're right. I've been overprotective and…we need someone like you out there."

"A suave, master of arms to dispense bullets and charm?"

She laughed hard, her eyes rolling to the ceiling. "Whatever you have to tell yourself to get out of bed. Tan's pulled a new ship out of mothballs that's looking for a crew. I was gonna suggest Liam for XO, but…I'd rather keep him close."

"Half the Nexus knows how close."

"Shut up!" She shrieked, her palm slapping his shoulder. With the added weight of the armor it actually stung, but Scott threw it off without a grimace. He'd endured worse. "I'll still worry about you though."

"You don't exactly have the monopoly on that," he admitted, having to sit on pins and needles while he heard about his sister and her wild plans to find Meridian. With a soft tone, he said, "Thanks, for finally having a bit of faith in me to not fuck things up."

She smiled, a hand patting into his back, before her eyes swung to the ramshackle bed. "Speaking of…? Reyes? Really? I thought you had better taste."

"I'd say he tastes just fine."

Groaning from the pits of her bowels, she sighed, "You know he's only using you."

"Oh Sis," Scott slapped her on the back, both Ryders rising to take on the galaxy, "that's the best kind of relationship."


End file.
